Caged
by PrentissRose
Summary: When six college friends go on a road trip to the Alaska wilderness, what will they find there? A group of blood thirsty men and women with intent to kill wasn't one of them. That mixed with love, fear, and grief might be the end of them...or will it? warning: graphic violence and smut in later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This just came as an inspiration as I was watching a scary movie, so I hope you guys like it! They're all seniors in college because it's not mentioned very often in here. Please, leave a review and read my other stories!**

July 3

"Come on, Elliot!" Olivia huffed as they continued to zoom down the deserted Alaska state highway in Fin's brand new, shiny range rover. "You don't honestly believe that." Elliot looked at her with a serious expression on his face and ushered to the thick, green trees moving past them outside of the window in the chilly summer night air.

"I do." He said, looking into her dark eyes, his turning a shade darker as he saw the pure fear reflected back at him.

"Elliot, there are no cannibals living in the forest, now quit scaring them." Nick huffed from his reject seat in the very, very back of the car with luggage squished around him on both sides and Liv's husky, Samson. He probably would have been much happier if he had been seated between Casey and Liv, like Elliot was.

"I'm not scared." Casey said with her ipod still plugged into her ears, her head resting against the window as a few strands of red hair fell out of her sloppy bun. Nick snickered from his place in the backseat and crossed his arms, waiting for Elliot to continue his story.

"There's a whole legend behind it, but I'm not sure you wanna hear it." Elliot said looking into Liv's eyes once more. She nodded, slowly. Even though Olivia secretly loved scary things, driving along a deserted highway in the dead of night with not another living soul in at least fifty miles made her shiver down to her bones.

"Give it a rest already, Stabler." Alex Cabot, the beautiful blonde, snipped from the front seat with her feet on Fin's lap as he drove, faster than the speed limit, down the long stretch of highway. Fin snickered and Elliot shot them both a look to shut up, loving the feeling of teasing Olivia.

"One night, a group of friends were driving down an old abandoned highway." Elliot began in a deep, mysterious voice. "It was pitch black outside and they hadn't seen another human being in at least one hundred miles. All of a sudden they felt a bump under the car, so they pulled over to see if they had run over something." Elliot slinked his arm around Olivia's waist when he felt her shiver. It felt really good to have her this close to him, especially since she was scared.

"They didn't find anything, but then one of them went missing." He whispered in a low, hollow tone. Olivia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Missing?" She squeaked. Elliot nodded.

"She just disappeared, out of the blue. They turned their backs for only a second and she just vanished. They assumed she was somewhere in the woods, maybe playing a joke on them, except she didn't come back after they called her name for hours and hours." Olivia scooched her body closer to his, anticipation and fear taking over her.

"Three of them went out into the woods to look for the girl and two of them stayed behind by the car in case she showed up. When the three of them didn't come back either, the two remained considered driving to the nearest rest stop and calling for help, except the girl had the keys to the car, so they couldn't go anywhere. All they could do was wait." Elliot recognized that Alex had began to breath deeply through her nose and Nick had too. The only one's awake and listening were him, Liv, and Fin, who probably didn't even care that much.

"Soon the wait became nerve racking, so they had to go out and look for them. So, they walked and walked and walked." Elliot spoke slowly, emphasizing every word. "They called all of their names, even tried to find their way back to the highway, but succeeded in both to no avail. That's all the cops had managed to get out of the survivor."

"Survivor?" Olivia shuddered in his arms when he nodded into her hair as he rested his own against hers.

"Yeah, Liv. She said that there were these deformed men that ate her friends, every last part of them." Elliot murmured softly. He felt Olivia burry her head into his neck and the feeling of her soft eye lashes brushing back and forth against his skin. He kept repeating to himself in his mind that they were just friends, but the way she felt safely caged in his arms made those feelings he'd tried to conceal bubble up to the surface again.

"It was just a story, Liv." Elliot mumbled after a few quiet moments, still feeling her shaking.

"I know." She whispered back. Elliot could feel her hot breath on his neck and he wondered what it would feel like to have her warm, welcoming lips on his. His breath caught in his throat when he felt just a touch from them, and to his despair she sat up and looked away.

"Sorry." Liv mumbled under her breath, not quite meeting his eyes. Embarrassment and humiliation swelled up inside of her. Elliot Stabler was way far out of her league and to think that she could just press her lips wherever she pleased on his body, was absolute insanity. Sure they were best friends, but nothing more than that. Nothing more. She heard Elliot shift behind her and she uncomfortably crossed her arms over her chest. God, she was an idiot.

"Don't be." His voice was closer than expected as she felt his breath on her neck. "Liv, I-"

"DAMN!" Elliot was interrupted by the sound of Fin slamming his hands against the dashboard, frustrated obviously. Alex yawned and stretched, and Casey yanked the ear buds out of her ears.

"What now?" Nick moaned from the backseat, sleepily. So much for being alone. Disappointment flooded through Elliot when he realized that he wouldn't be able to tell Liv what he had been thinking for the past three years since they met as freshmen. He wouldn't tell her, not tonight at least.

"Runnin' out of gas. Almost empty." Fin groaned, sounding upset. Olivia exchanged a look with Alex, still feeling Elliot close. It felt good, like she was safe even though they had no clue how far they were from the nearest gas station.

"Have you seen any road signs?" Casey asked, biting her lips uncertainly. "Any sign of civilization?" Fin's face paled, as did everyone else's when they realized how truly far they were away from any other human.

"Guys, guys," Alex said swinging her feet off of Fin's lap to pull on her shoes. "There's bound to be a gas station in a few miles. We've been driving for at least five hours." Olivia's nostrils flared.

"What if there's not? How the hell are we going to find help?" Olivia asked in a shaky voice. Fin opened his mouth to say something, but Liv cut him off.

"We're not going to get any reception up here, idiot!" She snapped, trying to wiggle out of Elliot's arms which were securely wrapped around her waist.

"Liv, calm down." Elliot whispered, trying to sooth her. Dammit, he shouldn't have told her that story. Olivia lay her head in her hands as panic began to overtake her.

"El, I hate the forest." She whimpered. For the first time, Elliot saw her at a truly vulnerable state; her pupils dilated, beads of nervous sweat forming on her forehead, and her arms were shaking again, this time in true fear.

"Then why the hell did you come?" Nick snipped from the backseat. Everyone turned to glare at him.

"Nick, shut up." Elliot growled in a warning tone. The last thing he wanted was for Liv to think that she should've stayed home. God, no. This trip would suck if she weren't with him. Nick held his hands up in surrender, but he was still pissed that he had been the one forced in the very back.

"Oh thank god!" Casey said pointing her finger out the window to a small, raggedy sign on the side of the road.

**SAL'S GAS AND DINER**

**1/2 MILE**

Fin laughed in relief.

"And diner." He said staring in awe at the sign. "What I could use for a nice cheeseburger right now." The rest of them continued to argue over how badly Alex had packed their food, as Elliot whispered to Olivia.

"You okay, baby?" He asked with concern, placing his hand on her hip and pulling her body gently against him once more. This time she didn't resist. She seemed to have relaxed more when she saw the sign. Olivia nodded and lay her head on his chest, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"How about no more scary stories." Elliot said, as he heard Alex say something to Nick that sounded like, 'fuck off, asshole.' Now that wouldn't surprise anyone.

"How about you continue to tell me them as long as we're not in the middle of nowhere." Liv murmured, smiling against him. Elliot smiled when he heard her response.

"Deal." He said, snaking his other hand around her stomach.

A few, short minutes later the six of them pulled up to what must've been Sal's Gas and Diner, but boy did it just look like some old broken down house.

There was only one gas pump, and each of them had doubts that it was actually working, and a rickety looking shack behind it, with faded red paint pealing off of it. There was an old ford parked on the side of the shack, but it probably wasn't working by the looks of it. None of them saw another person outside with the green trees in the background framing the scene perfectly. It looked like the set of a horror movie, except they were the stars of the show.

"Oh dear god." Alex said as they all got out of the car, including Nick who was still struggling to untangle himself from his seatbelt. Everyone would have snickered in amusement, had they not all had the same thought floating around their minds. What if there wasn't anyone here?

"Shit.." Casey muttered under her breath as she began to walk towards the door of the shack only using only the front lights of Fin's car to guide her safely there. She knocked on the door and it immediately swung open to reveal a man in his late seventies with the serious need for some new clothes and a hair cut.

"Can I help you?" He croaked in a low, shaky voice that scared the shit out of Casey, not to mention the fact she hadn't been expecting anyone to answer the door with the first knock.

"Yeah, uherm, we just uherm need some gas. We're uh, running low." Casey stuttered. The man stared at them for a minute going from figure to figure.

There was the delicious looking redhead in front of him, with the nice, pretty green eyes. Then there was the beautiful blonde, with those long, long legs that would please him very much. At last there was that gorgeous dark haired girl, with a sweet vulnerable look to her. He could only imagine what she would be like. As for the young men that were with them, they were all very handsome, but not his type. He was sure that some of the girls would enjoy their meat if he didn't.

"I'll be right with ya." The man said extending his hand out to Casey, who hesitantly shook it. "The name's Sal, young lady and what might yours be?" Sal asked in a low, predatory voice. Casey shifted uncomfortably, as did the rest of them, not quite trusting this guy.

"Casey." She mumbled, looking at her feet. Sal used his other hand to reach up and brush away a piece of her stray hair on her face.

"You can't be more than twenty, now can you? You're a young thing." He said licking his lips. Casey looked at him with scared, wide eyes. The rest of them stood in shock. It was creepy enough he was eyeing her like he wanting to ravage her body, but the fact that he was actually making contact with her skin, freaked them out a lot.

"Hey!" Nick shouted from behind Casey, making his way up to her. "Can we just get the gas and leave?" He asked harshly, as he tugged Casey's hand and pushed her lightly to the rest of them, now just facing Sal.

"We're all friends here." Sal said in a more friendly tone, showing him his hands which was supposed to be some kind of friendly gesture. "I just gotta get my key to the pump, and I'll be right out." He went back into the shack without another glance behind him.

"Get in the car." Elliot demanded to Alex and Olivia who looked extremely alarmed at what had just happened. They were all taking courses in self defense, as they lived in New York, but this guy just seemed like a complete maniac. Olivia looked at him.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"Just get in the car, Liv."

"Why?" God she was so fucking stubborn.

"For protection." He said grabbing her hand in his. "It'll be fine, just I don't want him touching either of you like that." Alex and Olivia nodded uncertainly and climbed into the back of the car, making sure to get as far away from the windows as possible. Samson was sleeping in the backseat, as he had been for the whole time, but Olivia nudged him awake and patted her lap, so he would come up front and snuggle with her.

"You okay?" She whispered to Casey when she climbed in the car a few moments later. Casey nodded lightly, but Alex and Olivia still saw the pain and fear she was holding back. Casey wasn't one to expose her emotions like Alex was and Olivia could understand that. In fact because they both weren't into that, it made her feel closer to Casey, like they were sisters. Olivia wrapped her arms around Casey's shoulders that began to shake as she began to gently cry.

"That was so fucking weird." Casey sniffled through her tears. "Ah, god, I'm such a wimp." The three of them laughed with Samson safely tucked between them. At least they were safe and together, for now...

**A/N: What's going to happen? Who the hell is this Sal guy and why is he having these weird thoughts about the three girls? Next chapter will be much, much longer and more exciting and angsty. **


	2. Chapter 2

**The song I refer to later in the chapter is Island in the Sun by Weezer. I don't own that either. Hope you like my story and please leave a review! Check out some of my others :D Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I'll try to more often **

**SVU Belongs to the Dick Wolf**

* * *

July 3

Olivia, Casey, and Alex remained sitting in the backseat alongside Samson who each of them had snuggled with at one time or another. Elliot and Nick had been on either side of the door, protectively making sure that Sal the creep went nowhere near them. Fin was proceeding in paying Sal as he filled up the range rover with as much gas as possible.

"That'll be 27.40, my friend." Sal said, not really talking to Fin, but more eyeing the back of the girl's heads through the glass.

"Hey!" Fin yelled taking Sal by the scruff of his collar and pulling him up close to his face. "Don't you dare look at them." Sal just laughed like nothing was wrong and that Fin's cold eyes weren't burning into his.

"Hey man, I'm just as horny as you are." He smiled showing off his rows of yellow teeth. Fin snapped.

"You fuckin' asshole!" Fin landed a hard, forceful punch to Sal's face, hitting him square in the jaw. Elliot jumped on top of Fin and held his struggling body back. As much as Elliot wanted to beat Sal to pulp for being a disgusting pervert, didn't mean he could follow through with those actions, not when he was majoring in criminal justice.

"Fin, Fin!" Elliot shouted throwing him away from where Sal was laying on the ground, moaning. "Calm down!" Fin backed away, his face still beat red and anger surging through his veins like he never felt before. He wouldn't let that freak near the girls as long as he was still alive.

"Fuck off." Fin spat at where Sal was.

"Come on, I was just trying to make some friendly conversation." Sal huffed as struggled to get up. Elliot took a fifty out of his pocket and threw it at him.

"Keep the change." He muttered as he made his way around to the driver's side of the car and Fin got in the passenger seat. Nick, with no complaints, climbed into the back with the girls, even though it was as cramped as ever, especially since Samson was laying there with them.

Elliot started the car and was about to drive away, when they heard the car door opening and Casey scream. Sal had opened the door next to Casey, had reached across, and was proceeding at tugging Liv out of the car by her wrists.

"Get off her!" Elliot yelled as he lept out of the car after the old man and his struggling best friend. Samson was barking like crazy and had jumped out of the car behind his owner.

Olivia felt her wrist aching as he yanked on it to no end, and was now dragging her across the stony, dirt road towards the trees. She tried to pull away, but he had a death grip on her and was evidently stronger than they had all expected. Elliot was running behind them as fast as he could, followed by Fin and Nick who were all screaming her name at the top of their lungs. Samson had jumped out after them was in front of Elliot and was quickly gaining speed as he saw Liv writhing in pain and fear. Olivia could barely see the scared horrified faces of Casey and Alex in the car through the thick darkness that would soon fully envelope her when they got to the trees.

"You're gonna make a _nice_ meal." Sal growled in low voice in her ear. Olivia gasped and began to kick her legs hoping to wiggle out of his grip. No such luck. They were now proceeding into the daunting forest and the dark trees, scattered with frost consumed them in the dark.

"G-get off!" Olivia whimpered loudly, her voice cracking at the high octive. She tried to scream, say something louder, but her voice wasn't working. She heard Samson's bark at least a few feet in front of her and then the sound of Sal screaming. The grip of her wrist loosened and she fell on her ass in the wet forest floor with a thud. She rolled several feet down the hill, feeling twigs and branches digging into her clothes and body. She landed with a grunt in a soft patch of dirt on the edge of the forest with Elliot and Fin only a few feet in front of her.

"Liv!" Elliot screamed, rushing to her side. "Baby. God, did he hurt you?" Olivia shook her head and tried to hold back a few tears that were escaping her eyes. What if Samson hadn't been there to save her? Samson. Where was Samson. Olivia shot up and looked back into the pitch black forest, where not a sound was heard.

"Samson!" She called, climbing off her butt and dashing back into the trees. "Samson!" The only light that was provided was the light from the car, and that wasn't doing much good. She couldn't let Samson, the dog she'd rescued from the shelter two years ago who'd always been so overprotective of her, to get lost or hurt in the forest with that creep Sal.

"Liv, what're you doing?" Elliot screamed loudly as she ran back into the trees, not really caring what lay in the woods as long as she found Samson.

"I have to find Samson! Samson!" Olivia cried, panic clearly present in her voice.

"Olivia don't!" Elliot said as he ran after her up the damp mossy hill that was scattered with all kinds of outdoor crap. He was slightly startled when the light from the car disappeared completely and all he could hear was the twigs snapping in front of him from Liv and her voice fading away with each step she took.

"Olivia, hold on, let me find you!" Elliot screamed through the trees as he felt himself scrape his hand on a rough piece of bark on a rather large tree. No response. Now all he could hear was his own panted breathing and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. He looked behind him and all he could see was the outline of the trees; no road, no car, no Fin or Nick.

"Olivia." He said again, this time not so loudly, more out of fear that she still wouldn't respond. How far had he run? He hadn't gone that far, he knew that for sure. Or had he? All he had focused on was getting Olivia back to safety, he hadn't realized how far or how fast he was running.

Soon he couldn't focus. A feeling of sheer terror raced through his veins when he thought about Olivia all alone out here with Sal who could be anywhere lurking in the trees and watching her. He couldn't decide whether to go back and call for help even though they had no cell phone reception up here whatsoever, or to continue walking in the trees and calling Liv's name which seemed pretty god damn pointless. But going back would be pointless too because sending the rest of them in here looking for Liv was even more dangerous. He continued walking, not knowing whether he'd regret it our not. The only thing he knew was that he wasn't coming out of these woods without Olivia.

* * *

"Fuck." Alex muttered under her breath as she continued to stare at the pine trees, swaying in the chilly night breeze, waiting for Elliot, Olivia, and Samson to emerge with smiles on their faces. That didn't happen though, even after they waited for a long ten silenced minutes.

"Elliot! Olivia!" Fin screamed into the trees, hoping with all his heart that they would answer, assure the waiting four that they would be fine and that they were just looking for that god damn dog. No answer. Panic rushed through every single one of them when they realized that they were far too deep into the menacing trees to hear their calls. If Liv and Elliot couldn't hear them, then all four of them wouldn't be able to hear their cries of terror if something did happen to them.

"We have to go after them." Nick said as he began jogging towards the trees. Fin looked at him like he was insane.

"No, Nick don't." Fin said hurriedly, his eyes big and scared. Jesus, if Fin was scared, then the rest of them should be terrified.

"What? Why?!" Nick exclaimed with accusation and disbelief present in his voice. Fin shook his head and looked into the trees solemnly.

"Man, we can't go in there after them!" Fin said calmly, trying to deny the fact that this was the worst possible thing that could happen; lost in the woods in the middle of fucking nowhere in the middle of the night.

"Why the fuck not?" Nick asked furrowing his eyebrows, anger blazing in his eyes. Casey and Alex just watched as the small amount of composure in the situation they had began to crumble.

"Because, man, it's the middle of the fucking night, we're not gonna be able to find them!" Fin said forcefully ushering to the pitch black sky with what seemed like a million stars glistening in it.

"That's better than leaving them out there all fucking night!" Nick spat at Fin, as he continued to walk towards the entrance to the forest.

"Nick don't!" Casey said in a scared voice. "Please, don't." She repeated looking into his eyes in fear. Truth was it was counterproductive and they were probably just chasing the dog down. She wondered if maybe they were overreacting to the situation. They probably would've been if Sal the creepy weirdo wasn't in that very forest with them.

"Guys, guys, calm down." Alex said when Nick started to say something in a raised tone. "How about we just wait until the morning when there's sunlight, and then we can go looking for them." Alex suggested. The idea sounded good to all of them, except for Nick who had to argue.

"No! Alex, they could be dead by then!" Nick stated angrily with a hint of determination. They all glared at him.

"Fine." Casey said quietly. "Go die with them." With that she turned on her heel and made her way back to the car.

"Case..." Nick whined, knowing that she was now extremely pissed off at him. "Casey, com'on don't you wanna find them?"

"Yes! Yes, I want to fucking find them, but going out there in the middle of the night isn't going to do us any good! Seriously Nick, why don't you use your god damn head instead of acting on instinct!?" Casey yelled at him. "Jesus fucking christ..." She trailed off walking along the border of the trees wiping away the tears that where brimming her eyes.

"Don't go." Fin said softly to Nick who looked at Casey's shuddering shoulders as she tried to fight back her sobs. A few moments passed before Nick turned to look at Fin.

"Fine. We wait until morning." Nick sighed reluctantly as he walked over towards Casey. He wrapped his arms around her as she let her head fall into his chest as she cried.

"They'll be fine." Nick whispered to her as he tightened his grip around her, only hoping that those words were true.

* * *

The sun was high in the sky, beating down on the black road and the green trees, still swaying with a slight breeze even though it had to be at least 90 degrees outside.

Fin was sitting on the edge of the forest munching on a bag of potato chips that they had found in the diner at Sal's, along with a large bottle of Coke that Fin was slowly sipping every few minutes. Alex was in the backseat of the car, fanning herself as she tried to get used to the sweat that was pouring down her body. She had taken off her shirt earlier, exposing her baby blue bra and toned stomach that Fin would have admired any other time than now. Casey was pacing back and forth like she had been the night before singing along to the song blasting out of the car that they had decided to turn on earlier. Hopefully if Liv and Elliot got close enough they'd be able to hear the music and locate their way back to the car, but that hadn't happened yet.

Nick was being more productive than all of them as he went through the diner or shack or whatever you want to call it. He found plenty of food which they'd all been happy to eat; chips, popcorn, sodas, sandwiches, salads. Sal's Diner was definitely way more stocked than they thought that it would be.

"_When your on a holiday._" Casey sang under her breath as she stretched her sore arms, trudging over the dusty rocks and pebbles under her aching feet. "_You can't find the words to say. All the things that come to you and I wanna feel it too."_

"I think we should start looking." Nick muttered as he approached where Fin was sitting. Fin looked up at him and nodded.

"Yeah." He agreed, climbing off the dirty ground with a sigh of disappointment. Through the whole night every one of them, even Nick, had all of their hopes in Olivia and Elliot turning up. Now that it was about 11 o'clock in the morning, they knew that something had happened to them. Either they got lost or something worse. They could only guess what happened, but they'd rather not think about it.

"What're we gonna do?" Nick asked Fin squinting up at the sun, sweat trickling down his neck. Going into the woods when someone just got lost was one thing, but when they had vanished last night and could be miles in was a whole other. For all they knew, they could've found another, more populated, highway and found help. That chance was extremely low, even though they didn't have a map.

"I think we should split up." Fin said finally after a few minutes.

"Split up?" Alex called from the backseat, instantly jumping out and marching over to them with a nasty gleam in her eye. Oh god.

"Are you fucking insane?" Nick asked furrowing his eyebrows in confusion. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"No, I'm not." Fin said rubbing his temple with his fingers. "Look, its our best shot at finding them, okay? Half of us can go in the woods, half of us can drive back and get help."

"Oh hell, Fin, can't we stay together?" Alex asked peeling her hair, damp with sweat, off her face and up into a sloppy pony tail. Fin sighed and looked at her with pleading in his eyes. He needed Alex to agree with him because he knew that they were the two most stable in the group. Casey had anxiety problems already after loosing her parents to a twisted psycho killer and Nick was just a stupid asshole that people only liked because his sense of humor that would do them no good in a situation such as this.

"Alex, if we stay together and go in, we all might get lost. What good would that do, getting lost miles from anywhere? If we all leave and they come back they might think that we ditched them." Fin huffed as he tried to explain to them.

"They'll know we went to find help." Nick said looking at them.

"Yeah? What if Sal's comes back too and kill 'em both?" Alex and Nick were silent when they realized Fin was right.

"Nick and Alex, you can go looking for 'em in the forest. If you guys find 'em you can take that old ford and drive to somewhere safe. Me and Casey'll drive back to the nearest town and find someone to help us. Send out a search party or something." Fin told them. They looked at each other reluctantly and slowly nodded when they decided it was the smartest option.

"Case!" Fin ushered over Casey who was still trailing along the edge of the trees singing the songs blaring from the radion to herself. She looked up at them with her tired green eyes and jogged over.

"What if we don't find them?" Alex asked him with concern.

"Blare the ford's radio like we're doing now." Fin told her with confidence. The plan began to make more and more sense, except for one thing.

"Do we even have the keys to the ford?" Alex questioned. Before Fin could answer with 'No,' Nick piped up.

"Yeah." He pulled out a rusty pair of keys out of his pocket. "Found them in there." Nick ushered towards the shack. "Figured we'd need them."

"Good, good." Fin said. "You guys should take a backpack full of food and water and stuff." They all made their way over to the back of the car where they started to fill up Casey's old red backpack full of supplies that would last them for the day, maybe even longer if needed.

"Woah, woah, woah, don't forget the Twinkies!" Nick exclaimed as Fin neglected to pack the fattening, gross snack. Fin, Casey, and Alex looked at his with disbelief and puzzlement.

"Are you fucking with me right now?" Alex asked him a hint of a smile playing at her lips.

"What?" Nick asked in genuine confusion. Casey snorted and covered her mouth with her hand as she tried to contain more laughs.

"What?" Nick asked again now laughing too.

"You're so fucking weird." Alex said giggling as she shoved him playfully. That was the last time that they would ever exchange a true feeling of lightheartedness after the events they were about to go through.

Moments later they were all hugging each other; Alex hugging Fin tighter than necessary.

"I wish Ryan was here." Casey muttered to Alex. She was referring to Ryan O'Halloran, her boyfriend of two years. Alex smiled to herself. Of course the only thing that would keep Casey going was knowing that Ryan was thinking of her. They were in love, beyond what people would think possible. It was adorable, yet quite scary that two people could be so connected.

"I know, but he's probably enjoying his parents house as much as you're enjoying this." Alex comforted her. Casey grinned to herself as she hugged her assuringly not knowing that this time tomorrow, they'd be in some deep shit.

* * *

Elliot woke up to the sound of twigs snapping in front of him. His eyes snapped open and he sat up from his place on the dirty ground.

"Hello?" He called out, praying silently that no one would answer him. It took his foggy eyes a few moments to adjust to the sun spilling through the trees onto the forest floor and the extremely hot temperature that he would've never thought possible in the midst of Alaska.

"Samson..." Elliot sighed in relief when he saw the siberian husky standing in front of him with one of his paws raised and his head curiously tilted to the side. His gray, black, and white coat was dotted with a twig here and there and his bright ice blue eyes were looking beautiful as ever against the naturey background. Samson trotted forward to him, wagging his tail when he saw that Elliot recognized him.

It worried Elliot slightly that Samson wasn't with Olivia since she was the one who had gone after him in the first place, but he knew better than to think something happened to her.

"Where you been boy?" Elliot asked stroking Samson's soft fur, making sure to rub behind his ear as the dog whimpered in worry. Elliot knew how intelligent Samson was for two reasons. The first was the breed he was. Siberian Huskys were known for their abnormal intelligence and ability to help others. The second was the fact that Samson knew when something was wrong with Olivia. You could always tell by the way he whimpered and paced.

"Come on, we should start walking." Elliot said to Samson as he climbed up off his ass brushing the pine needles and rich brown dirt off. Elliot didn't know where he was. He was probably a mile in the forest, maybe more or less. He'd called Liv's name for at least three hours, sitting in the same spot, hoping that the less he moved the better chance of finding her would get him. He'd called her name until he had fallen asleep.

With that he started to walk in the direction that may or may not lead him to safety with Samson by his side to protect him.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Chapter three! Hopefully they will make it out alive, but with Sal still lurking in the forest, who knows? ;)**

**ckk211918- that is actually exactly what I was thinking when I wrote it! Great minds think alike. :) **

**Thanks to everyone who's keeping up with my story!**

**I'll update much, much more frequently guys because I've gotten a head start on this story**

**Please Review! :) **

**SVU belongs to Dick Wolf**

* * *

July 4

"Samson...Elliot..." Olivia mumbled weakly for what seemed like the millionth time. That looked like the exact same tree she'd passed an hour ago with the long, poky branches that reminded her of her ancient history teacher from high school. Maybe she was going in circles, although she wasn't positive that she had seen a small stream before.

Olivia knew she had been walking, running, or jogging all night. At first it was bearable knowing that Samson was out here with her, quite possibly in danger. That thought kept her going for the first three hours calling his name and trying to go in one direction so that she would be able to find her way back to the rest of them easier.

Soon, she began to think about what Sal had said earlier, 'you're gonna make a _nice_ meal.' That throaty, harsh whisper freaked her out and she had stood frozen in place for a few minutes listening for a sign that she wasn't alone. All she had heard was her pounding heart in her chest and the breeze that made the woodland around her shake as pine needles from the trees scattered to the ground. After that she had turned around, hoping that she would make her way back to the car quickly, as panic that she was lost began to overgrow her.

For a while she had thought she was getting closer, a few times she thought she even heard their voices, but it had always been a false alarm. She would still be in the middle of nowhere. Her steady footsteps had become distorted, she had tripped several times feeling blood spill out of her knees and elbows as she cut them on rough pieces of bark. She knew she was slowly going insane as her fear of being lost in the forest, suddenly became reality.

Olivia hadn't allowed herself to sleep, she needed to keep walking. Sooner or later she would come across someone that was willing to help, right?

* * *

Casey and Fin were speeding down the highway the way they'd already come. So far, they hadn't seen any other car or human being. Not a sign of intelligent life. It was quite eerie as a matter of fact, even with old some Rolling Stones song streaming from the radio. If it had not been the seriousness of the situation, the blaring rock, the sun beating down on them, and the fresh smell of nature would have been a fantastic vacation. Fin silently wondered why the hell this had to happen. Why them?

"Do you think they'll be okay?" Casey squeaked, staring out the window at the passing trees. This situation reminded her of what had happened to her parents when she was fourteen.

Casey had been home alone that fatal September night, waiting desperately in the kitchen trying to do her homework as she was constantly reminded that her parents were home by four every day. She remembered the call from the police department, telling her that her parents had been found dead in some warehouse in Brooklyn. Casey wouldn't find out the details of their murder until she was eighteen. They'd been sliced open, their organs yanked out of their bodies by some freak who kidnapped at least thirty couples since 1970, forcing them to have sex and then viciously murdering them. Casey had developed anxiety and depression problems in high school, but had been a really good student for the most part. She never went out to social events though, even in college when Alex and Olivia tried to convince her. Casey never wanted to enjoy herself, feeling guilty any time she had an once of happiness in her system. She didn't deserve to be happy if her parents weren't.

"Casey, they'll be fine." Fin assured her comfortingly glancing over at her. "Besides, you saw that old dirt road back there. They might wander across it and find their way back to the main road." Fin was referring to the path they saw leading into the trees in a winding curve. It was barely wide enough for their car to travel on as it was overgrown with weeds and whatnot. Besides, it was unlikely that someone lived out here. If that wasn't obvious by now.

"Wha-" Casey started, but then was cut off by the jolt Fin's car gave and the sound of squealing tires. The Range Rover launched to the side then forward sending Casey's head painfully into the dashboard.

"Shittt!" Fin said trying to get a grip on the swerving car by twisting the wheel, but the car was far out of control now. Casey's eyes were wide in fright as she gripped the edge of her seat for her life as a bit of blood trickled down her temple from where she smashed it against the dashboard. Sweat was covering Fin's hands as he tried to maneuver the car back to its normal position, but the tires didn't seem to be listening to the commands the wheel was giving.

"Fin brakes!" Casey screamed as they lurched to the side once more after they had nearly straightened out. Fin slammed his foot on the brakes, but far too quickly. For a moment they had nearly defied gravity as the car proceeded to flip over in the air, the tires coming out of contact with the road, but the hood of the car smashing painfully into itself. They skidded across the black pavement for a few painful seconds as the car began to loose momentum. Casey could feel shards of glass digging into her hands as she attempted to press herself away from the shattered windshield.

Then they stopped.

Casey could hear her breath coming out in short, scared pants, and the sounds of the completely bashed in car as the engine broke down more and more, but not a sound from the driver's seat.

"Fin?" She groaned in a groggy, shaking voice, rubbing her head and feeling blood smear across her temple and hand. No response. Everything seemed blurry: the light from outside, the shimmering glass, the swaying trees in the distance.

"God, Fin?" Casey said again, pushing herself up off the roof of the car as they were still flipped over. She thudded back down with an 'umph' when she felt her foot being tugged painfully above her. She saw that her ankle was twisted completely around with the seatbelt encircling it. How the hell did that happen? She tugged on it once more and felt a shooting pain travel all the way up her leg. Wincing in pain casey reached her arm over to Fin, trailing over the dashboard. She took his arm and shook it slightly. She noticed that their was a huge welt on his forehead and blood stream tracing down his neck from the back of his head.

"Fin?" Casey asked again shaking his arm, not so gently this time. She felt the beginning of tears sting her eyes although it made no difference since her vision was already blurry from whamming her head, probably more than once. The fact that Fin wasn't responding made all the difference in the world though. They were in the middle of nowhere, miles from any human civilization and by the looks of things nature certainly wasn't on their side.

"Fuck." Casey said, feeling tears slowly escape her eyes at the realization of the situation. "Fin?" She squeaked out once more, sniffling, hoping by the desperation in her voice that Fin would stop joking around. He remained silent.

Casey reached up to her lower leg once more and began blindly tugging at the seatbelt ignoring the excruciating pain that bombarded her whole entire body. She trembled in an attempt to free herself from the knot that was the long, thick fabric of the seatbelt. Soon, enough with the grief of losing Fin, Casey began to violently tear at it, still neglecting to notice how horribly painful the acts she was performing were. Even with the feeling of a rather large piece of glass digging into her back, Casey didn't stop. All she cared about was freeing herself from the car that now seemed like a cage. How she was going to get out was a mystery.

The entire roof was smashed in, leaving little room for Casey to move around even if she could, not to mention the fact that anywhere you were there was going to be shattered, sharp blades of glass digging into some part of your body. Casey was sure that the once shiny new exterior of the car was now scratched and crushed from having rolled across at least fifty feet of pavement.

_Twackkkk_

Casey leg thudded down in front of her and she knew instantly that her ankle was broken. There was no question to be asked. As she sat up, minding her head from the low ceiling, she saw how mangled it was. There was the bone sticking out of the side and there was a long, bloody tear from the side of her foot on her right side to the bulb of her ankle on the left side. She cringed as she shifted her weight to visually examine the rest of the Range Rover. Well, the front of the car was out of the question as all the windows were broken and crushed to nothing but a small place of disheveled metal. The back window in the trunk of the car was suitable though. It was cracked, but not broken.

Casey crawled, as carefully as she could, to the back of the car, avoiding any glass she could which was down near impossible. The glass dug into her knees, the palms of her hands, and her feet, letting blood spill from her body in a dreadfully slow process. Making it to the back of the destroyed car in under 10 minutes, as she paused several times to let herself take in a few shudder breaths while she sobbed, wasn't what she had planned to do on this vacation.

"We're gonna relax." Alex had told her, sitting on the edge of her dorm room bed as Casey studied. "I swear there's this huge lake up there! It'll be fantastic!" Casey had given Alex a quizzical look before placing her Criminology book down and taking off her glasses. The excited, vulnerable look Alex was wearing had given Casey the expression she was talking to a four year old toddler instead of her good friend from college who was majoring in the same things she was.

"Are you sure this is okay with your grandparents?" Casey had asked with certain hesitation. She did _not _want to have an incident where a huge party was held and several people got arrested for smoking pot. Alex just smiled.

"I'm sure! This is gonna be so fucking awesome!"

Yeah, so much for that.

Casey slammed her knuckles into the back window, breaking the already breaking barrier of glass, not caring at fucking all that her knuckles were now sliced open and pouring out blood. She felt the relieving feeling of fresh air entering her lungs as she wiggled out of the car feeling glass shards scraping over her stomach and legs. For a moment she looked back. She drank in the image of Fin's body slumped against the steering wheel, blood pouring out of the almost positively fatal head injury and wondered if she should go back and retrieve his body.

Hesitation got the best of her and she ventured once more into the car noticing now more and more what grueling physical pain she was in: the cuts, the bruises, the broken bones which was probably far more than just her ankle. It took her a good while to finally get a decent grip on Fin and lug him out of the seat. His combined body weight, considering he was twice her size as she was quite petite and he was a football player, was a lot for her to handle, and by the time she managed to pull them both out of the car she had nearly fainted from exhaustion. However she did have enough strength to feel Fin's nonexistent pulse, tilt his head back, and perform CPR to the best of her abilities. Only after she felt several of his ribs crack underneath her pushing palms did she stop to realize he was gone. Fin was dead.

Tears streamed down both of her cheeks knowing that she was now fully alone, loosing yet another person she was so close with in her life.

"Shit!" Casey half sobbed, half screamed, picking herself up off the burning hot asphalt radiating the blazing heat off of it sending waves bouncing off of it clearly visible in the late afternoon sun. Looking around as the world became clearer and clearer to her foggy eyesight. Yes, the sun was still there beating down on her mercilessly, and of course the road was there, feeling like fire against her bare, throbbing feet, but there was something off. Something so terribly off, that it shook her down to her bones. Spikes.

Casey limped, faster than thought possible with the state of her battered body, over to where she saw them far up ahead of her. The only reason that they were visible was because the sun was glistening on them sending a bright light to catch Casey's even hazy eyes.

It looked as if someone had scattered huge, sharp, spiked jacks all over the pavement, as if someone had known they were to be driving back down this way. Questions filled Casey's head and as much as she wanted to assure herself that someone had just been playing jacks and accidentally spilled them out on the open road in the middle of nowhere, she was positive that she couldn't. Something was off. Something was really, really off.

"What the hell?" Casey whispered to herself as she spun around in a circle having the feeling that someone was watching her, that someone was focusing all of their attention on just her and her utter confusion. She tried to think of a plausible explanation as to what the hell _was_ going on. It couldn't be a joke, certainly not. All of her friends, even Nick, knew the fragile state she was in; depression and anxiety had been a huge part of her life as a teenager and playing some sick joke on her was against all rules even for the most cruel of her enemies, which she had none of. No, this wasn't a joke. Well finally she came to that conclusion. Maybe there was another way to figure out why...but it was no use. Someone planted those spikes there because they knew she would be coming back down that highway with Fin. Someone planned for them to get into that accident, knowing fully well that those freshly blown up tires being punctured would send the car sprawling through the air resulting in well, death.

Casey backed up away from the spikes as if some sort of invisible force would send them flying at her. She couldn't stay here, not when someone with the intention of getting them into an accident was watching her. Running Casey thought of her decision; was running in the forest that she could so easily get lost in more dangerous than staying out on the road with some weird entity?

Yes, nature wasn't on her side, but neither was this person or whatever it was. Figuring she had a better chance of living if she went into the forest, even with no resources, Casey fled as fast as she could into the woods, not looking back, feeling the terrible guilt of leaving Fin's body behind.

* * *

"God your such an _asshole_!" Alex exclaimed from beside Nick, taking a swig from her water bottle as sweat dripped down her face and back .

"That's all you've been able to say for the past three hours we've been walking." Nick said playfully smirking at the irritating affect he had on her, well, on everyone. Alex rolled her eyes and tugged at her white skin-tight top that was just a little to tight for Fin's liking as he was very overprotective of the girl he had secretly wanted to marry since freshman year.

"We called Liv and Elliot's name for awhile, then that got boring, so hah." Alex shot at him as she fully removed her top. Nick stopped in his tracks and stared. As much as he thought of Alex, Liv, and Casey as sister or cousins they were undeniably hot. The proof was right here in front of his very eyes.

Alex's toned, slim back was slick with a fine layer of sweat that soaked through the back of her gray sports bra. That adding to the fact that her boobs were extremely appealing to his eyes was enough to make him groan. Alex turned around to glare at him, her cool blue eyes sparking with anger at his piggish ways. Even with her hair sweaty and piled on the top of her head made her look like she just had exceedingly pleasurable sex. He wasn't calling her a porn star or anything, he was calling her a very hot and pretty girl that he just happened to be very good friends with. If she was anything but that, besides family of course, than he would already have her in his bed making her beg for more.

"Is that a six pack I see, Miss Cabot?" Nick said, eyeing her attractive tummy with raised eyebrows. Alex slapped his arm with a little more force than necessary and he lept back in mock pain, although it really did sting in the slightest.

"Fuck you, asshole." Alex spat continuing to walk through the crunchy ground scattered with pine needles.

"There she goes again with the asshole." Nick said holding back a giggle.

"Well, you shouldn't say that you aren't one, because you know it's true!" Alex said.

"Nu uh."

"Uh huh."

"Nu uh."

"Uh huh."

"Nu uh, Nu uh, Nu uh!"

"Your maturity level is zero." Alex huffed nearly tripping over a fallen log. Nick chuckled to himself and stuck his foot out in front of her, having her nearly trip again.

"Your just jealous." Nick said laughing at the annoyed look Alex gave him. Alex threw a bunch of pine needles at him which he blocked with his arm.

"Of what?" Alex groaned, irked at his childish comebacks.

"The love I could provide to you." Nick said cheesily making this up as he went along. Alex snorted and Nick grabbed her wrist and whirled her around to face him a little to close for comfort.

"I'm serious, Alex." Nick said looking Alex dead in the eyes moving his head closer to hers, feeling the sweet smell of her breath on his lips. Her body was pressed right against his. Her boobs were on his chest, her bare legs were pressed against his own, and her fingers were snaking around his body, exploring.

"I'm serious too, Nick." Alex said brushing the side of his face with his thumb sending goosebumps through his skin. "You are an asshole." She burst out laughing and shoved him away from her. Nick had a feeling of disappointment and anger in his body and he wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the fact that this was the first time he had been declined by a girl before. Yes, he was fucking annoying and not the brightest Christian in the bible, but he was pretty damn handsome and charming if you knew him well enough.

On the other hand Alex was tickled by the way Nick tried to make moves on her. It was always in the most obvious ways too and very dramatic, as if this were some scene from some overrated romance movie. She also knew that he didn't really like her like that. It was just some weird thing that they did; a cat chasing a moose. Alex loved Nick, as a very dear, fucking exasperating brother.

"That was a low blow, Al, even for you...bitch." He muttered to himself as they continued to venture through the woods. Alex stopped in her tracks and looked around curiously.

"Do you hear that?" She asked squinting her eyebrows up at the flaming sun that was beginning to lower. Nick listened intently. All he could hear was her steady breathing and the pounding sensation he'd had in his head when he got overheated a while ago.

Alex was referring to the bizarre silence that she hadn't noticed before. There wasn't anything to be heard, that was the point. Nature had all kinds of sounds, didn't it?

"Nah." Nick responded looking at her to see if she was screwing around with him. She shook her head, as if she were trying to clear her thoughts, that they were interfering with reality.

"You know what that reminded me of?" Alex asked as she trudged under a tree branch with Nick right next to her.

"What?" Nick asked her slightly intrigued by the way she was handling this, almost as if she was scared. A scared Alex Cabot? Aw shit!

"That story Elliot told us." Alex murmured quietly, as if she were afraid to say it out loud, as if it might come true. Nick looked at her.

"I thought you fell asleep!" He exclaimed, surprised. She shook her head and jerked her head in his direction.

"I thought you were too." Point made. "I just didn't want them to know I was listening, you know? I mean I thought they might want to be alone...anyway, just the forest, even though it's still daylight, it's fucked up." Alex shivered and Nick had the urge to comfortingly put his arm around her and assure her it was okay.

"Look, Alex you wouldn't be saying that 30,000 years ago, okay? The forest lives alongside humans, we're fine." Nick assured her. "Elliot always has a load of crap to say anyway." A smile formed on Alex's lips and she turned to face him.

"Thanks, Nicky." She smirked and skipped ahead, hearing him sigh angrily behind her.

"I told you not to call me that!"

* * *

"So, have you ever seen Liv naked?" Elliot asked Samson as they trudged through the woodland. He'd asked that as a joke of course, dogs couldn't respond to human questions. Except thinking of Olivia Benson naked made him extremely hard, and being out in the middle of nowhere with just a siberian husky at his side, he wasn't taking anything he said to seriously. At this point he'd managed to convince himself that the eerie silence of the woods was just his imagination because in what known forest in the middle of a desert like, hot, summer were there not any birds chirping or any animals wandering around making all kids of random ass noises. Maybe he was dehydrated. Actually no shit he was dehydrated, considering the sun was sinking behind the trees sending arrays of light dancing across the forest floor and he'd been out here in the middle of fucking nowhere since last night with no food, nor water to keep him going.

As much as Elliot wanted to just get back to that god damn gas station and go the fuck home, he couldn't. For one there was no way in hell he was going to find his way back considering he had no idea where he was right now. He could be one mile off the main road, or fifty miles away from any sign of human life. Plus he knew Olivia was out here somewhere, she had wandered in the same time he had going after the dog and knowing her stubbornness, she wouldn't get out of this forest alive without the dog. Now that was something to worry about.

He cared about Olivia more than anything in the whole god damn world, and he couldn't quite explain it, but the way she was snuggled against his chest last night shivering from the scary tale he told her gave him some overwhelming urge to protect her against everything. Elliot knew Olivia was more than capable of beating someone's ass to pulp as she was skilled in self defense, more due to the fact that he mother nearly killed her when she was 16, but whenever he thought about her being in danger anger boiled up in his veins that he wasn't with her at the moment. He should've been more responsible, he should've never let her go, he should've gone after Samson instead. At least then she would be safe and not stuck out here for god knows how long.

"Look, man if I were you I'd take every chance I got to make this shit up to her." Elliot mumbled to Samson who looked at him like he was crazy. "It's your fault we're in this mess, well partially your fault. I mean yeah that weirdo has something to do with it, but you shouldn't have chased after him."

Elliot got the shivers when he thought about Sal and the possibility that he was still lurking out here, maybe with Olivia in his sights. If he could have one wish in the world it would be that Olivia was safe. He didn't give a shit about himself. Even if he stayed in here as a rotting corpse and she made it out alive, he would feel better then if she was dead. If she was gone, he didn't know what he had to live for.

Certainly not his fucked up family, nor his other friends who couldn't compare to her. Sure, she was his best friend, they told each other everything, but he was also in love with her. How typical was that, that him the stupid best friend fell in love with her the person he felt closest to in his life that just happened to be sexy as hell.

It was also typical that he was stuck out here, not able to do one god damn thing about it.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Chapter 4! **

**I know that Olivia's parts are kinda short, but soon her and Elliot will meet up and they will be one of our main focuses again! Plus I don't want to drag on about them being trapped in the forest. **

**Someone mentioned the movie "wrong turn" and to be honest I wasn't watching that when I got inspired. I was actually watching "the hills have eyes" which, in my opinion, is a little more scary. Anyway don't think I'm trying to copy it, I'm just doing something similar. **

**Thanks so much to everyone whose left a review and kept up with the story **

**Please leave a review :) **

**SVU belongs to Dick Wolf**

July 4

It was barely noticeable at first; a brownish white substance laying on the forest floor and due to the decreasing amount of light, Olivia didn't notice it at first. She wasn't thinking about the human remains she wound find in the forest, but more of the things she would do when she got of here; take a bath was the top hit.

When she did see it though, the thoughts of being clean vanished from her mind, and thoughts of just wanting to survive took over.

Olivia was frozen in her tracks, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. Bones. Not just a stay animal bone, but rotting, full length human rib, leg, and spinal bones. Fear swept over her and she didn't hesitate in running in the opposite direction, not even caring which way she was going. Who the hell was keeping track anyway? She was already lost and now there were fucking human remains to add to the fact that she was nowhere near anyone. Even the possibility that this person was killed by some sort of wild animal was something she doubted. Something kept her mind on Sal, about what he had said to her.

She hoped to fucking god that the rest of them were okay, Elliot and Samson in particular. She had lost Samson before she had even gone into the trees. It was her fault she was lost. It was her fault everything was slowly spiraling out of control. It was her fault she was caught in her worst nightmare.

Olivia ran through the trees, every menacing second either hearing something that sounded suspiciously like a chuckle or a twig snapping above her, causing her panted breathing to become sobs and screams that no one could hear.

* * *

"Jesus christ, Nick that's like the fourth time you've had to pee." Alex huffed as she turned away from where Nick dodged behind a tree and lowered his fly.

"Sorry, Alex, it's not my fault I have a bladder issue." Nick said as he peed, laughing. Alex smirked to herself and crossed her arms waiting for him to finish.

"There is no issue with your bladder. There is one with you drinking all the water though." Alex called over her shoulder as she looked up at the sun sending rays of light dancing across the ground. It was actually very pretty, but considering the fact she could physically feel the temperature lowering and soon they wouldn't have any light to navigate their way back she knew they should start their path back to the diner.

"Yo, Nick, I think we should start heading back." Silence. "Nick, seriously." Alex said turning around to see if he had snuck up behind her or something. He wasn't there, as far as she knew he was still stationed behind the tree.

"Alex?" His voice came out in a trembling, high pitch and she could sense fear in his voice. "Can you come here for a second?" Alex crinkled her eyebrows, knowing something was wrong with him. What could have possibly gone wrong while he was peeing? Yes, Nick was probably the most immature of them, but he wasn't a scaredy cat, nor was he weak.

"Nick?" Alex said walking over to the old oak tree where he had been peeing just seconds before. If she hadn't heard the fear in his voice, she would've stayed put not wanting to catch a glimpse of his man junk as that was the last thing she wanted her dreams to be haunted with.

She rounded the corner of the tree, expecting him to be there with some sort of dead animal or cocky, joking grin on his face, but she should've known better. It was genuine fear that she had heard. Standing in front of Nick with a huge, old fashioned shotgun in his hand, a thick cord of wire slung over his shoulder, and a horrible grin on his face was no other than Sal.

"Hello beauty." Sal said in his disgusting voice while focusing the gun on her. Alex felt her arms and legs start to shake. Sal was going to kill her. He was going to kill both of them. Alex gripped her white tank top in her hand, as if somehow that would do her good against a crazy man with a shotgun.

"W-what do you want?" Alex squeaked out in a small voice as she shifted her weight from foot to foot, wanting so badly to run as fast as she could in the opposite direction, not fucking caring where she was as long as she was away from Sal and that god damn gun. Sal grinned, showing off his rows of yellow teeth.

"I want you and your hot, tight ass." Sal growled in a low, predatory voice that made Alex take a hesitant step away from him, her legs threatening to give out under the stress racing through her brain. He chuckled when he saw how agitated she was becoming as he make sexual remarks.

"P-please, leave us alone." Alex said, barely audible through her overcoming panic. Sal chuckled and pointed the gun back at Nick who looked like someone had just killed his best friend. That was actually close to happening considering the situation.

"You, tie her up." Sal snarled at Nick tossing the painful looking wire over to him. It landed in front of Nick's sneakers and he looked at Sal, not believing what he was asking him to do. Wasn't he just going to kill them? Couldn't he just shot their heads off and make it nice, quick, and painless? No, of course not that was far to kind.

"We h-have money a-and plenty of s-stuff back at the c-" Nick started holding his hands up in front of him, showing Sal that they definitely didn't have anything on them at the moment. Sal cut him off though with a harsh, cold voice that resembled nothing like they had heard back at the diner.

"Tie her up, or I kill her." He pointed the gun once more at her. Nick looked at Alex, who nodded slightly, showing him that this was their best way out. If maybe somehow they could disarm Sal and kill him, as gruesome as that may sound, they could probably make it out of there alive. This could just be a minor setback in finding their way out to the highway, but it wasn't. No, there lives were in the hands of a fucking insane, old man.

"Okay." Nick said quietly as he picked up the wire and slowly walked over to Alex. She was shaking more than ever now, even though it was Nick tying her up and not Sal which was slightly better,

"Kneel, bitch." Sal demanded not taking the gun off of either of them. She obliged to his command as much as her brain warned at her not to and knelt feeling twigs digging into her knees, painfully. Nick wrapped the harsh wire around her wrists and she instantly felt it digging into her skin even though he put it on rather loosely. Alex winced in pain when he proceeded in moving down to her ankles and pulling it around them as well. Much to Nick's discomfort, as he tied her up he knew what Sal had meant earlier. He knew that Sal was going to rape Alex. He didn't know where and he didn't know how, but he knew it was his grizzly intention. How he was going to stop that from happening was unknown as well.

Sal moved forward with the gun slightly lowered as he took in the sight of Alex, laying on the forest floor completely helpless. It took him only a few seconds of eager walking before he was standing directly over her letting his dark hungry eyes rake up and down her body. Alex, nor Nick didn't see him bring back his foot, but they certainly saw him bring it painfully into her side with force an old man shouldn't have.

Alex gasped in agony as she felt a rib crack beneath his boot and Nick lept forward, blinded by anger and hatred. Sal took the gun and quickly slammed it across Nick's head, letting his body fall limp to the ground. He knelt down beside Alex, who attempted to wiggle away from him, wanting as much distance as possible between them. Her eyes left Sal's hungry face for a moment so she could see if Nick showed any signs of stirring. She saw him roll to the side slightly blinking up at the setting sun, trying to get his brain in order.

Sal smirked evilly and ran his hand over Alex's bare heaving stomach. She whimpered and felt tears threatening to bubble up behind her eyes as she saw him gradually take over her body. He leaned in close to her face and Alex silently begged Nick to wake up and see what was being done, to distract him somehow, but he remained dazed and out of it. She felt Sal's hot breath on her neck as he stuck out his wet, pulsing tongue and slowly run it along her pulse point and slide up the curve of her jaw. Her breath hitched in her throat when his eyes came in contact directly over hers.

"Tell me you want me." He grunted as he ran his free hand that wasn't holding the shotgun over her waist and skim the side of her breast. Alex was frozen in fear, she couldn't speak, much less move or make any indication to Nick that she was dying inside. When Sal saw that she wasn't making any movement with her mouth or any other part of her body for that matter, he got angry. Gripping her wrist tightly with one hand he twisted it around, so she screamed out in pain.

"Tell me you want me!" He demanded again.

"I-I want you." Alex sobbed, attempting to turn her face away from him, but he let go of her wrist and forced her to look at him. He licked his lips, hungrily once more gazing into her eyes as if he wanted to devour her. Alex didn't know if she'd ever been more scared in her life. With his vicious eyes burning into hers, sweat from the heat dripping down her body, and the uneasiness that Nick wouldn't wake up, she knew that this would be that one moment that people described to her. The moment they said they would never forget for as long as they lived. Alex remembered the day Casey had told her about the night her parents died. How she waited for hours for a call from them or someone to come knocking to tell her that they were fine, just in a traffic jam, but that didn't happen. Instead a police officer called her home, and Casey had said she remembered the ringing in her ears. She remembered exactly what the man had said to her. She remembered everything. Now Alex would remember this.

Thankfully, Sal withdrew away from her after rubbing his hands up and down the whole length of her body several times more. Alex gave a cry of relief that he was away from her, not touching her, or violating her. Nick began to sit up a little bit, the blurriness of his vision becoming less and less. Sal saw this and kicked him in the ribs like he had to Alex resulting in Nick grabbing his stomach and groaning.

"Get up, boy!" Sal yelled pointing the shotgun at him once more. Nick's legs were shaking as he grabbed onto the side of the huge oak tree and hoisted himself up, moaning in agony.

"Drag 'er." Sal commanded ushering his gun at where Alex was laying, struggling to hold back her pained sobs. Nick felt something hot streaming down his face and realized it was tears. He was crying because he was scared.

Nick grabbed ahold of Alex's long, exquisite legs that were now tense and shaking. She looked at him for a moment, let out a sob, and looked away, ashamed of what was happening to them.

"Walk." Sal said ushering to what must've been deeper into the forest. Nick looked at Alex again, hoping that she would give him a sign that it would all be okay. He wanted her assurance. He needed her assurance. She wouldn't look at him though. She was biting down on her lip, so hard that it drew blood, and trying to contain her sobs.

"Walk god damn it!" Sal boomed. Nick started moving forward, hearing Alex squeak in pain as branches, twigs, and pine needles dug into her back and broke skin. As they were moving Alex let her tank top drop out of her hands when Sal wasn't looking, hoping that someone would find it and know that something had happened.

It wasn't until the sun sunk entirely behind the trees and the freezing night came over them did Alex begin to feel like she was going to die. Maybe it was because she could see her breath escaping from her mouth in a thick mist, or maybe it was because she could feel her back being split open again and again by the painful objects that scattered the forest floor, or even perhaps because for the first time in her life, Alex Cabot had no fucking idea what was going to happen to her.

* * *

Casey moved through the trees quickly, every once in a while glancing back at the freeway that stretched into nothingness. She had made the decision to stay close enough to the highway that she could see travelers whether bad or good, but far enough in that that probably wouldn't see her. So far, she had seen not a soul drive by. The sun had well sunk over the trees by now and all that was left to illuminate her to safety was the bright moon above her.

She had briefly wondered how far she was from the nearest town, but quickly discarded that question for another night. They had been asking each other that very thought the whole time and look where that had gotten them, absolutely fucking nowhere.

The realization that Fin had died was becoming more and more clear to her now. Knowing that she would never hear that funny laugh that they made fun of ever again, or ever see those cute dimples Alex loved so much was enough to make her start crying all over again. She wanted to go back and get his body, hold it close to her chest and apologize for everything. She didn't blame herself and she certainly wasn't blaming him, but someone needed to apologize for his unjust death. Someone needed to promise him that they were going to kill the bastards who caused him to die.

And although Casey was nowhere near him at the time she made a promise to him that she would destroy whomever caused this much pain. She made it her primary goal.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: WARNING: This chapter contains partial rape scenes and graphic violence! Don't read if your scared :) **

**This originally was a really long chapter for Alex and Nick, but it was a little too long so I split it up into two chapters. Hope ya'll like it!**

**Amanda4Meloni- Yep! Bobby, Brenda, and that other dude make it out alive! Thanks for reviewing on all my chapters! **

**SpaceKitten- Thank you too, for keeping up with the story!**

**Thank you to everyone who is reviewing and leave one if you like my story so far! Constructive criticism is needed as I am looking for improvement always! **

* * *

July 5

Elliot lay under an old oak tree with his arms stretched out above under his head. Samson was laying beside him, resting his head on Elliot's thigh, sleeping peacefully. It was freezing cold outside, probably in the 30's, and Elliot knew that he was lucky to have Samson beside him for warmth.

The night chilliness had taken over quickly enough and Elliot had decided at a relatively early hour that he had to settle down for the night. That had been hours ago and he figured that it was the early morning of the fifth of July. Yesterday had been the forth. He had planned to kiss Olivia under the brightness of the fireworks at the lake, but there were no fireworks to be found out here. Oh yeah and there wasn't an Olivia to kiss either.

Besides those grueling facts, this would make it the second night he had been outside, in the middle of nowhere with no food or water. Every few minutes he would feel his stomach rumble, not to mention the pounding headache he'd had since he'd been walking all friggin day without anything to hydrate himself with.

Suddenly, Samson's head shot up, his ears perked, and a deep low growl was emitted from deep inside his throat. Elliot looked at him with confusion. He hadn't heard anything. As a matter of fact he hadn't been hearing anything really all day. He had guessed that maybe this was a quiet forest, if that was even possible. Growing up his whole life in New York City, Elliot never knew what to expect from a forest.

"Samson?" Elliot asked him, as Samson slowly got to his feet looking in the direction to Elliot's left, which as far as Elliot could see, was just a bunch of those god damn trees that all looked the same. The Siberian Husky took a few slow steps forward as he continued to growl and then all of a sudden dashed off, barking.

Elliot cursed under his breath as he lept up off his ass after the dog. They were in such a peaceful state and then the dog had to freak out. All Elliot wanted was to get some sort of rest so that tomorrow he could go looking for Olivia once more, this time with full energy.

"Samson!" Elliot called chasing after him into the night. A thousand things rushed through his head at once, once he realized that Samson had to be barking at _something_. Maybe it was a deer or some other animal that he spotted. Was there even a reason Elliot was chasing after him? Yes. He wasn't going to lose that damn dog again, not when he was so important to Olivia and not when he was starting to matter to Elliot as well.

"Samson!" Elliot screamed once more, accidently banging his shoulder painfully against a large tree he hadn't seen. Then he heard something that didn't sound like barks or growls anymore, but sounded more like a human. Sobbing.

"Oh god, Samson!" The voice cried out. Wait was that...? It couldn't be...

"Olivia?!" Elliot yelled, running more frantically now, following where he thought the voice had come from.

"Elliot?!" The voice screamed out. Elliot saw her seconds later as he ran around a huge pine tree, kneeling with Samson by her side, wagging his tail and having his tongue hanging out sloppily.

"Elliot!" Olivia sobbed in relief, stumbling over to him, tears streaming down her face. He ran over to her and let her break down fully in his arms, racking off painful sobs. Elliot could feel the tears immediately soak through his t-shirt as she buried her eyes into his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her back, feeling cold sweat and dirt on her tank top. He knew he must've been freezing her ass off all of the nights she'd been out here alone, so he hugged her tighter, although he would've hugged her tight regardless of the situation

"Oh god." Olivia cried, her nails digging into his back as she clung onto him for dear life. "I-I w-was s-so sc-scared that I-I'd nev-never s-see y-you..."

"I'm here, Liv." He soothed running his hands up and down her back. "We're okay." Elliot pressed his lips to her neck feeling her heated pulse under him. Elliot knelt down on the ground with Olivia still safely tucked around him, and shifted her onto his lap. He noticed for the first time that she was shaking more forcefully than necessary if it was just from the cold.

Olivia instantly felt safer as he consumed her into his arms, having her safely in his lap, holding on to her just as tightly as she was holding onto him. She had never felt such a feeling of happiness in her whole life, not even when she turned 18 and was finally freed from the chains that withheld her when she was under the care of her mother.

"El," Olivia sobbed, "we h-have to g-get out of here." She withdrew her head from his neck and looked into his deep blue eyes with her own watery brown. Elliot nodded in understanding, not actually understanding the entire extent of what she meant.

"No, El, there's s-something going on." Olivia whimpered, feeling a tear streak down her face. "I found bones."

"Animal bones?" Elliot asked, stroking the side of her face with one of his fingers, sending shivers through her skin.

"No, no, human bones." Olivia said, hearing her own voice crack at recalling how upset she had become when she discovered them. Deep down in Liv's heart, under the fear and panic of being killed by whatever had killed that person she discovered, she felt slightly ashamed of what she had done. Running away from the group after her dog into the woods. As much as she had only meant well by her actions, it had obviously only brought the realization of life threatening dangers in the forest, resulting in at least two of them being lost in it.

"Woah, are you sure?" Elliot questioned, not sure if maybe she hadn't had enough water and was starting to imagine things.

"Yes! Yes of course I am. El there's something h-happening out here." Olivia told him, tears welling in her eyes, remembering that they were still stuck out here in the middle of nowhere with strange things still happening.

"Liv, have you had any water since you've been out here?" Elliot asked her. She shook her head and then narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

"Why?" Elliot hesitated and Olivia sensed this. It wasn't as though he didn't trust her, it was more that he was afraid she might not have all the facts straight. The last thing he wanted was to offend her, but of course with his luck that's what happened.

"You don't believe me, do you?" Liv said in disbelief, wiping away her tears with her arm, anger and hurt filling her body. Elliot shook his head at her hurriedly.

"No, no Liv that's not what I-" Elliot tried to explain himself, but Olivia shimmied off his lap and climbed up, walking a few feet away from him, leaning up against a tree, with her back turned. He saw her shoulders slack and begin to shake as she cried to herself. She had been relieved to see him because she knew he'd protect her against all harm, but here he was being an asshole, suspecting that she was just dehydrated and delusional.

"Elliot just...just leave if your not going to believe me." She sighed, exasperated and emotionally exhausted, not having the energy to deal with him right now. Elliot saw how much he had truly hurt her and made his way over to her, ignoring the way she shied away from him when he reached her.

"I'm not leaving you here, Olivia, and you know that." He whispered wrapping his arms around her middle and pressing his groin against her backside. He let his lips find her neck once more and made sure to give her an extra squeeze of comfort.

"I think we should get some sleep." Elliot told her as she sunk back against him, with exhaustion. Olivia nodded and lowered herself to the ground right where they stood, where she wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face into her knees, hiding her face from Elliot, slightly embarrassed of her fear. Elliot sat down beside her and didn't object when Samson squeezed his way between them, cuddling into Olivia, happy at last that he got to see his owner.

"El?" Olivia squeaking after a few moments, looking up to meet his eyes. Elliot brushed a piece of stray hair out of her eye, making sure to swipe his thumb gently along her jaw bone.

"Yeah, baby?" Elliot asked gazing into her eyes.

"Do you believe me?" Olivia questioned once more. Elliot became conscious that she wasn't going to give this up without a fight and getting down to the point. Elliot didn't hesitate this time though.

"Sweetheart, I do." He smiled when he saw her relax and wrap her arms around his midsection. He placed one of his arms behind her head and she leaned back into his.

As they drifted off to sleep in the eerie silence and cold of the night, Elliot gripped her waist and held her top half against him while Samson squeezed himself between their lower halves. It wasn't where he wanted to spend his first night with Olivia, but as he held onto her tightly, he wondered if he'd even have another chance to spend a night with her, somewhere not in the wilderness, not where Olivia was scared to death, not where certain danger lurked behind every corner.

* * *

It was a long walk. A really fucking long walk. Nick was panting and breathing hard and Alex had drifted in and out of consciousness, having being beaten several times by Sal over the past few hours they had walked. She had no idea where Sal was telling them to go. Actually, as far as she could tell there still wasn't anything out there except for the annoying trees and nothingness. If he were taking them back to the gas station a certain hope swelled up in both Nick and Alex's hearts. If that did happen at least they had a chance to steal the car and drive as fast as they could away from him.

By the looks of things, that wasn't going to happen. The trees were becoming thicker and thicker with each mile they traveled. The branches were dark, thick, and scraggly occasionally scraping across Nick's body causing blood to spill out of the long deep cut that was made. Every once in a while Nick would hear Alex cry out in pain as her body was dragged over things scattered on the ground. Alex was nearly naked, the sporty, thin material of her shorts having been torn by the twigs and branches pulling at them. The few times Nick had caught a glimpse of Alex when Sal wasn't looking, he had seen her blonde hair, flaked with leaves and her legs, scratched and cut, in addition to the wire cutting deeply into her ankles.

The whole time Nick had been struggling to hold back sobs, seeing Alex like this was probably one of the worst things he'd ever seen. Always looking up to her as somewhat of a big, no it all, sister, the vulnerability and fear that was brought out of her soul in this situation made it ten times worse. Knowing that neither of them could do a god damn thing about this, that they were out of control of this, caused his heart to race in anger.

Masked behind that anger, was fear. A lot of fear.

"Stop." Sal growled at Nick. Immediately Nick stopped, at first not noticing the darkened old village a few yards in front of him. Only when he wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand did he notice it.

His heart sank. This wasn't the gas station. This wasn't a place that they would find help, nor was this a place that would have any resources like water. There were at least fifteen small houses, some broken down, some barely standing. They were all the same rusty gray color, made out of crumbling bricks. There were small windows on each of the houses, most of them broken leaving a lining of sharp glass along the rim of them. Some of the houses had second floors, some of them were just small one floor ones, nevertheless it was mysterious that there were houses out here. Houses that seemed to have a certain message being screamed at Nick and Alex both. The message wasn't good. Perhaps it was the looks of the houses with their destroyed windows and walls or maybe it was the fact Sal had been the one to take them there, but it didn't seem right. It seemed almost unreal.

The next moment, before Nick could ask Sal what the hell he was going to do to them, he felt a searing, agonizing pain in his upper thigh. Screaming out in pain and falling to the forest floor, Nick looked down at his leg to see a screw driver had been driven into him.

"Nick!" Alex screamed, seeing what had happened to him. She thrashed around on the ground, still bound in wire that were digging into her wrists and ankles more than ever. When she saw Sal turn his attention on her, her screams became louder and louder.

"Nick!" She screamed once more as Sal advanced towards her, grabbing her legs and pulling her violently across the ground. Sal picked her up and slung her struggling body over his shoulder. Sal kicked Nick hard in the nose, blood spewing out of it at a dangerous rate. Sal kicked him in the ribs again, satisfied when he heard the all to familiar sound of ribs crunching under his boot. Even with Alex's screams in Nick's ears, he couldn't seem to pull himself up off the ground. His whole body ached and trembled with fatigue.

"Stop p-please. Nick! NICK!" Alex sobbed as Sal began to walk towards the houses with her still over his shoulder, bound in the wire. Nick tried to reach out to Alex's figure that looked closer than it really was as it slowly bobbed away in the distance screaming and crying.

"Alex...Alex..." Nick muttered under his breath, feeling the screw driver being wedged more in more into his leg as he shifted, trying with all his might to get up.

"Nick!" Her voice was fading quickly.

"Nickkkkkkk...!"

* * *

"Please! Please don't do this!" Alex begged as Sal continued to walk in a brisk pace, her still over her shoulder. The breath from her pleas was dissolving into steam in front of her face as she screamed.

"Don't cry, babydoll. You're gonna love this." Sal whispered to her, glee present in his voice. Alex tried to wiggle out of his grip, screaming and sobbing all the same.

"Nickkkk!" Alex wailed at the top of her lungs. She felt his footsteps become faster paced and instantly understood what was going to happen to her. Nick was as helpless as she was, injured far beyond repair. She knew Sal wasn't going to kill her, not yet at least, not when he was so delighted about something, something that she knew had to be far worse than dying. He was going to do something to her that would make her wish she was dead.

"Oh god...please...someone...help!" She shrieked banging her bounded wrists on Sal's back, hoping to god that someone else would hear her. Hope hadn't exactly gotten her far though, so she wasn't surprised when Sal just chuckled.

"Ain't nobody gonna hear you." He snarled to her as they trudged up what must have been rickety, gray stairs leading up to one of the houses.

Alex lifted her pouding head up as best as she could seeing the clearing fade away from them as they walked into the doorway of the house. She saw the porch with old, rotting wood and noticed that it was one of the nicer houses in what must have been some sort of fucked up village. What kind of a place was this?

"Oh look what we have here!" A harsh, deep voice that wasn't Sal's said from the back of her.

"A young one too." Another higher pitched, different voice spoke.

"Looks tight." One other voice said. Alex screamed when she heard how many different men there were in the room with them. Her heart was racing, sweat poured down her face, her whole body was twitching her instinct to run away as fast as she could being held back by the rough wire scaring her wrists and ankles.

"Help me pleasee!" Alex sobbed once more, still knowing that it was useless to scream her head off. She felt Sal's weight shift and was momentarily lifted off of Sal's shoulders before being slammed down on something that felt like a hard, rough wooden table. She felt her head crack painfully as he flung her down onto the uncomfortable surface.

Happy that she would finally being able to see who had said those remarks was a thought she regretted instantly as soon as she saw them.

"Look, she's scared of us!" Said one of them, flashing her a stomach turning smile. Alex's whole body tensed when the same one advanced towards her. A thousand thoughts exploded like fireworks inside of Alex's muddled brian. With him and his greasy, long, black hair that hung around his shoulders in disgusting nots and his dirty, muck covered face that looked as if it hadn't ben washed in weeks, she wondered who they all were. In addition to Sal and the first man, that looked like he couldn't be over 16, there were two others that looked to be about 30. They too had the same long, black hair and dirt encrusted bodies as the first.

"Don't," snarled the taller of the two 30 year old, "scare her. Although, I do like them to squirm." He ran one of his hands down the side of her hips, squeezing her gently and slowly and slowly getting closer to her core. Alex whimpered and turned her head, focusing her eyes on each one of them. The four of them all had the same hungry look in their eyes like Sal had before in the forest, only this time they were glistening like dark beetles.

"Cut her free." The other man demanded, directed towards Sal. Sal immediately obliged to his command and took out a sharp looking, small knife from inside his pants pocket and proceeded in sawing at the wire around her wrists. Alex wanted to jerk away from him, the proximity of them being so physically close together with such a defined object scaring her throughly, but she definitely did not want to risk cutting herself with the blade. As soon as her wrists and ankles were free, which took only a matter of seconds as he vigorously sawed, Alex began to struggle. Kicking her now free legs and flailing her arms she attempted to knock at least one of them in the face, to at least show them she wasn't going to let them take over her without giving up a fight.

"Look at 'er go." Sal cooed from above her grabbing hold of both of her wrists while chuckling. "Westly, hold her legs down." He ordered at the youngest of the men. Westly nodded excitedly as he dug his long, yellow nails into the skin right above her knees and forced her legs to be still. She screamed in pain when his nails broke skin and dug deeply into her flesh, leaving a row of ten little crescent marks.

"Nickk!" Alex yelled loudly, feeling Sal shift so he was standing behind her head on the other side of the table while Westly let her lower legs dangle off the table, still gripping her thighs tightly. _Oh god, please hear me _Alex thought to herself feeling tears streaming down her face in buckets.

"I can't wait any longer." Growled one of the two similar looking men. He began working at the buckle of his pants, rabidly pulling them down his legs to expose his unbelievable hard on. Alex began to breath harder her breathing becoming even more rapid, which she didn't think was possible. Her voice didn't seem to work.

"Why does Gail get to go first?" The second one of the men asked in a husky tone. Sal chuckled deeply and looked him right in the eyes, winking.

"Don't worry, Lucifer, you'll get your turn. We all will." Sal said grinning down at Alex's writhing body. Gail ran his hands all over Alex's body, pausing to roughly rip off her sports bra, tearing the fabric completely in half. Fondling her breasts roughly, Gail lowered her mouth onto one of them while his other hand reached into her shorts and slipping inside of her. Alex whimpered in pain, too afraid now to call for help. Really too afraid to do anything except watch them infiltrate her body, sending that thought of not giving up without a fight straight down to hell.

Her whole thought process was going straight down to hell.

* * *

Nick felt his head spinning, blood gushing from his nose even faster then before as he struggling to climb to his feet. He heard Alex's screams fade, yet they were still there barely audible, her screaming his name in a way of such agony he knew she must be dying or something was being done to her that was close to it.

"Al...Alex..." Nick panted as his hand scratched down the side of the tree trapping bark under his finger nails. The only thing on his mind was getting to her, saving her, making sure that she was fucking okay. Was she fucking okay? Nick only hoped that she was fucking okay. Oh god, what was he going to do? He needed to think...he needed to really, really think hard. He needed to do something about this! He couldn't just sit there with a screw driver wedged in his leg and wait for someone to help them in the middle of fucking nowhere. Both of them would be fully decomposed before someone even came within 50 miles of this place.

"Alex!" Nick yelled through the darkness. Her screaming had ceased. All was quite except for him. He grunted and panted, writhed and crawled, screamed in rage and in pain to move, to make some sort of advance, some sort of movement towards where she was in that house, but he couldn't. He was exhausted and scared, shaking with boiling anger that was welling up inside of him that he couldn't do anything about.

"Dammit!" Nick screamed when he felt bark slice through his hand as he attempted to push himself up again. "Alex!"

Then he heard something. A laugh. Nick turned his head around, ignoring the shooting pain from his thigh as his weight slightly shifted. He saw a woman, the sight of her making him become physically sick. Her skin was a moldy green with yellow spots scattered around. Her hair was long, wiry, and thick giving him the impression of a fried broomstick. Her eyes were bright yellow like those of a serpent and with seeing white, foaming lather seeping from her mouth, Nick emptied the contents of his stomach on the ground beside him which consisted of mostly stomach acid. Something about her resembled a hag, but mysteriously the woman couldn't be more than 30.

The woman titled her head to the side, smiling sickly. She lept forward, once she saw Nick attempt to wiggle away, to put some distance between them. She took hold of the screw driver in his leg and pushed it in farther even more.

"What's a fine young man like you, doing in a place like this?" She growled through her teeth, over the howls of pain emitting from Nick. Nick looked at her through blurry eyes and saw her yellow, rotting teeth.

"You look awfully delicious." She slithered, widening her eyes at him. It took Nick a moment of eerie silence to understand what she meant. _Delicious_. This was like his story. This was like Elliot's story. It was true.

It was then that Nick's frozen limbs came to life, his arm rose from his side quickly and whacked the woman as hard as he possibly could across her face. She screamed and all the blurriness of his eyes before disappeared. His head was no longer spinning, and he was now fully coordinated. He grabbed the side of the tree, still feeling the warm blood of his almost certainly broken nose, spilling down his chin. He pulled himself up with much effort and tried to walk forward several steps, but his legs quickly buckled and he fell in the pine needles and leaves.

He cried out when he felt the screw driver wiggle in its place in his leg and saw the woman pull herself up and smile.

"Goodnight." She smiled. Nick felt something hit him in the back of the head and everything around him faded into an abyss of black nothingness, his scream of pain fading along with his vision.

**What's going to happen to Alex? What's going on with all of these weird people? Why is Elliot's tale so similar to reality? How are Olivia and Elliot going to find there way out of this maze-like forest? **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey everyone! Here is chapter 6 of Caged! **

**Please leave a review! and thank you to everyone that already has**

**I would also like to thank SVUfan4Life for being my beta :) Your awesome :D**

* * *

July 5

Bright sunlight spilled over the ground that Elliot and Olivia were safely curled up on, under the branches of a large pine tree. Samson was snoring like he always did, every once in a while opening his eyes to peak out on the world around him, making sure everything was okay and safe. Even the eyes of an extremely protective and conservative dog like Samson couldn't pick up on the things that were happening to them and their friends.

Elliot had been awake for almost three hours, even before the sun had risen over the trees. He didn't know why, but his eyes flew open sometime in the early morning hours, having that spooky feeling that someone was watching them. The feeling had passed as soon as it had come, but Elliot still couldn't seem to get his eyes closed after that.

Now that it must've been nine at least, he thought it would be best to wake Olivia up. Truth be told, he didn't think he could bare the thought of lasting another minute out here, not moving to some sort of society. True, so far they hadn't made much progress, and they may or may not be somewhere close to another human being, but all signs pointed to remaining stranded. The best thing they could do was walk, walk and just hope they were getting somewhere.

"Liv." Elliot shook her shoulder, gently resulting in her sleepy groan. Samson's head shot up, happy that finally his people were awake and they could get on to doing something that required physical activity.

"Hmmm...?," Olivia moaned, her deep brown eyes fluttering open slightly, then snapping shut at their sensitive state to the bright light. Elliot smiled to himself, seeing the real Olivia. Sure, back in college they'd woken up with their friends, specifically Alex, at random bars, feeling the most hungover they'd ever felt and that was about the closest they'd gotten in the morning. Now, when he saw her sleepy and tired, not at all influenced by alcohol, he felt happy. Then he remembered once more that they were still stuck in the middle of nowhere which put a damper on his admiration.

"Livvy, come on. Time to wake up," Elliot cooed softly shaking her shoulder once more. This time her eyes opened, but she shot him an annoyed look which Elliot wouldn't take as a surprise. Olivia was known to have her grumpy days. The fact that they could feel the humid temperature climbing as the day wore on probably wasn't helping. Another exhausting day of walking in no particular direction was unfuckingbelievable.

Before Elliot could even get the chance to utter a polite, 'good morning' or 'how are you feeling,' Olivia got up with much effort and a groan, brushing dirt and leaves off her fine, fine ass. Samson was soon to follow her as she walked at a steady pace through the clumps of trees. Elliot was left dumbstruck for a few seconds, questioning why she was just walking.

"Liv!," Elliot called, getting up himself, although it wasn't as graceful as Olivia's was, tripping over himself as he darted after her.

"Liv, where are you going?!," Elliot yelled, nearly decapitating himself as he narrowly missed a low hanging branch. He saw Olivia's form sleepily trudging through the trees and quickly caught up with her at his rapid pace.

"Olivia." Elliot cut her off, holding her shoulders so that he could look her in the eye. Afraid that maybe she was really suffering from lack of food or water as he was, except worse, he checked to see if her pupils were dilated, but she shovedhim off of her before he could get a good look.

"Elliot, just fucking walk," Olivia snipped as she quickly turned in the direction that she had been traveling before Elliot rounded her off. Never before in her whole life had Olivia felt like a piece of shit, not even when her and Alex had gone to a keg party and ended up making out for like an hour in the back of Nick's crappy Ford. The next morning they had woken up half naked with what seemed like the worst hangover ever, but this was about ten times worse than that. Her head was pounding, sending what felt like jolts of electricity through her whole body. Her whole body was ached from her cramped position on the uncomfortable forest floor. In addition to that the fact that she'd been in the same skimpy summer clothes that were now dirty and torn since the second wasn't helping her Elliot pause to admire the fucking beautiful forest with all of its fucking colors wasn't on her list of fucking things she wanted to do. Not right now at least.

Much to her surprise Elliot obliged what she had asked, no told, Elliot to do. Secretly the only reason he was doing so was because he wasn't feeling the best and didn't feel like arguing. He'd recognized this when he stood up to go after her and it seemed as if all the blood in his body rushed straight to his head. That didn't feel to good.

"Liv," Elliot said as he walked behind her attempting to step over some nasty ass thorns that were ripping through his already torn jeans. "Are you feeling okay? Just tell me when you want to sto-FUCK!" Sadly, that god damn thorn bush managed to encircle Elliot's calf in what seemed to Olivia like an excruciatingly painful death trap.

Rolling her eyes, Olivia stomped over some of the weeds and pine needles on the forest floor before yanking Elliot's leg out of the tangle of thorns.

"I'm fine, Elliot," Olivia mumbled when she finally freed his calf from it. Much to Elliot's dismay she didn't say anything else to him even after they started walking again.

_Please talk, please talk, please talk. Just say anything to me. Anything at all. Dammit to hell woman, don't you know that I love you?_

"So, uh, Liv, have you looked at any of those offers?," Elliot tried to ask this as casually as he could, but he came out sounding like an absolute asshole. Olivia had told him a few weeks ago that she'd gotten a few offers from computer crimes, even though she was a junior, to be a recruit for a couple of weeks since they were slightly impressed with her extensive amount of experience at the police academy. Elliot had always been secretly jealous of her seemingly endless abilities and the way their instructors praised her for it. He'd been pretty damn good himself, but the mere fact that she was by far the hottest trainee at the academy made it ten times more valuable...and drop dead fucking sexy.

Olivia shot him a look.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I have." Olivia sighed as she reached around to her back, which was now shining with sweat, and attempted to fix the straps to her sexy, black bra. Elliot savored this moment because it was the perfect chance for him to check her out, which he had been a little too distracted to do in earlier events.

She was wearing a lime green top that hung loosely on her skin that looked absolutely phenomenal with her olive skin tone. Except now there was dirt and tears littering it, specifically one just above her belly button that exposed a reasonable amount of her toned abdomen. Her jean shorts, might've been just a little too short. The only thing that looked comfortable to Olivia was her shoes. They were her crappy, old pair of sneakers that couldn't afford to stand up against the elements. Anyone else would've looked ridiculous wearing them, but Olivia was no doubt a sex goddess and made anything look good it was okay.

"So, are you gonna take one of them?," Elliot asked her, now curious and slightly more content that he got a full once over of her exquisitely beautiful body.

"Why is that any of your business?," Olivia snipped patting Samson as they caught up to where he was waiting ahead of them. He always did that, feeling that if he didn't lead the way they would never get to where they were going.

_Oh wait...we aren't anywhere. _Olivia thought to herself with much bitterness.

"I was just wondering," Elliot said quietly, clearly offended at her need to suddenly be distant and so bluntly unpleasant with him. Deep down, Olivia too, felt the impact of her words and she would've told him had they not loomed into view.

"Holy shit, Elliot..," Olivia breathed dashing off in the direction of where the big, stone well sat randomly nestled between two large pines. Happiness flooded over her, even for a second her headache disappeared. The only thing she could think of was water.

It took Elliot a few seconds to register why she'd suddenly run off in that direction after she muttered a curse and his name, but it wasn't like this hadn't happened a little while before. Then he spotted it as well. Sure, the huge, old thing was covered in moss, but they could still make out the gray stones beneath it. True, it might not even have water in it considering they were out in the middle of nowhere, but if there was a well, there was bound to be people.

When Elliot finally caught up to Olivia, she was eagerly yanking on the rope that descended deep within the pit. He couldn't help but notice the tears that had sprung up in her eyes as she laughed out in relief as an old rusty bucket came in sight, full of crystal clear water. They wasted no time in unhinging the container from the rope and gulping down as much water as they could and pouring it all over themselves. Elliot didn't even pause to admire the way you could see Olivia's upper half as if she were naked with only the thin veil of green fabric clinging to her.

"Fucking finally," Elliot gasped between huge gulps. Olivia laughed as Elliot passed it to her. She wasted no timepouring a good amount of it on her head relieving her scalp, which was beginning to get the slightest bit sunburnt. Elliot watched her as she continued to take large sips of it, savoring the flavorless liquid as it slowly began to hydrate her body again.

"Yeah," Olivia agreed. "Finally."

Casey knew it was only a matter of time before she passed out. She hadn't slept since the second and she'd been walking since yesterday afternoon. She was not allowing herself to sleep during the night, afraid that someone or something would get ahold of her or she might miss a passing car that was willing to help. Three days without sleep was a record for her, and sooner or later it was going to be a record without any food or water. Right now, she thought of herself as an idiot for not getting any food or water from the destroyed Range Rover, if there even was any. Casey knew she should've checked anyway.

The sun was beating down in such a way that it made Casey think about the time she went camping in the Arizona desert with her parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. It was so fucking hot out there the whole time, except for at night when it turned deadly cold with not even the slightest bit of warmth. The resemblance between places was uncanny. She'd been fourteen then, the August before her parents were brutally murdered, but she'd had the time of her life playing truth or dare in the dead of night with her older cousins and constantly teasing her tense relatives about rattlesnakes and scorpions. At least there they had water and food and were somewhere where there were actual human beings. If only this trip was like that. If only it had been carefree, non-fatal, non-violent. Why couldn't this have been that trip Alex promised her? Hadn't she said it would be "so fucking fun?"

Casey still felt a surge of pity for Alex, knowing that her boyfriend was dead as hell and she'd just left his body back there. Casey knew no one expected her to carry Fin's body around, but dragging it on the side of the road, not leaving him there on the burning road like roadkill. Although she'd acted on instinct and dashed off into the trees afraid of the thing that had caused the accident, not even looking back, Casey still thought she could've done more. She could never quite pinpoint what, though.

Casey stopped in her tracks hearing something that sounded suspiciously like a motor and some sort of yelling. Wait was that cheering? Before Casey even got the chance to listen anymore to the noises that were like music to her ears, she ran as fast as she had in her whole life towards the road, not even caring at the bark and roadside thorns that tore at her skin. Casey knew that she normally would've broken down from the pain of her cracked ankle, it had swollen to about twice the size of her other ankle and had turned a deep blue and purple color, but right now the thought of getting out of here spurred her on. She broke out of the forest and staggered onto the middle of the road, waving her arms frantically.

"Stop! Please stop!," She screamed at the top of her lungs to whatever vehicle that was driving in her direction. Casey didn't register the dark blue minivan that had been traveling at quite a fast pace due to the brightness of the sun, temporarily blinding her. All she did register was the squealing of brakes and heavy cursing from the car.

Casey thanked god for not having the car hit her, as her vision adjusted and saw that the minivan had screeched to a halt ten short feet in front of her. She saw four scared, young, confused, slightly horrified faces staring back at her through the dusty glass of the windshield. Casey nearly broke down in tears when she saw that they all had to be younger than her, seniors in high school probably.

"Help me, please," Casey sobbed, walking closer to the car, holding onto it for support as her knees buckled. All four doors of the car opened at once.

"Honey, are you okay?," A girl with curly black hair asked her in a strong southern accent. Casey shook her head and broke down into hysterical sobs trying to explain what had happened. Even though these kids had to be at the most eighteen, Casey felt not only safe, but fully protected, as if these high schoolers to protect her from whomever was out there trying to kill her. Perhaps it was just being in the presence of another human being after everything that happened made her feel like everything was going to be okay, even though she openly knew it wasn't.

"Carson, we should take her to a hospital," Another girl with long, light red hair said with concern towards a handsome looking guy as she stood on the other side of Casey rubbing her back in soothing circles. Casey recognized he had been the one driving the car and he looked the most frightened out of all of them. Casey couldn't blame him, he'd almost hit her and that was something that anyone would be scared over.

"Yeah, we should," The other guy of the group said who had a slightly larger build than Carson. Casey thought he looked a lot like Fin with the build of a football had kind comforting eyes, and dark skin just like him. She broke down into another fit of uncontrollable tears and sobs.

"Please, please..." Casey cried pausing to catch her breath and sob. "Y-you have to g-go back." She saw all of there faces contort into confusion.

"What? Why?," The one who looked like Fin asked.

"S-someone's trying t-to kill me a-and my f-friends," Casey said through tears. "W-we have to l-leave or t-they'll kill you t-too." It took them but a few seconds for all four of them to exchange worried, horrified glances, before Casey realized she was being shoved inside the car. Soon they had zoomed into a U-turn and were speeding down the highway again.

"Honey, we'll get you to the nearest town possible," the girl with the red hair said kindly, looking at her with deep blue eyes. As much as Casey regretted changing her mind and asking them to go back to Alex and Nick and see if they were okay, the odds of them even being back weren't on her side. Even if they were safe with Elliot and Olivia, they probably drove forward towards Alex's grandparents. Except deep down, Casey didn't believe that for a second.

"I'm Abby," offered the girl with the curls, smiling politely down at Casey who had brought her cut and bruised knees to her chest so she could hug them.

"Bonnie," the red haired girl said. "Those two are Dale and Carson," she ushered to the front seats of the car where the two of them were seated. Dale was looking back on them clearly questioning what the hell was going on. The rest of them obviously were too, just more subtly.

"Do you think you can tell us what happened?," Abby asked in a low tone, not really making eye contact with Casey, probably thinking that she would bite. The last thing Casey wanted to do was explain to them the whole thing with Olivia and Elliot and the spikes in the road, but they had picked up a crazy stranger in the middle of nowhere, where they could've just left her there. She owed them. Casey took a few deep breaths, before explaining the whole thing.

While telling them everything, she couldn't help but feel that it was all so distant, like it had happened two years ago instead of two days. For a second Casey even thought it was almost over, that she just needed to get to the police and they would find all of her friends and recover Fin's body, but this whole thing was far, far from over. In fact, Casey knew that she might be saved, but she knew Alex, Olivia, Nick, and Elliot weren't. For them, this whole thing had just begun.


	7. Chapter 7

July 5

For the first time in her life, Alex Cabot wanted to die. She didn't care if it was a painful and horrible death or a short quick one, she just knew that she wouldn't ever be able to live, not after what had been done to her.

The short, quick pants of the men above her as they raped her made her head spin. She only caught part of what they were saying to each other as they took turns. Alex would've felt better had she heard nothing of what they were saying.

The man above her, Gail, groaned roughly as he released himself inside of her, causing Alex to whimper in mental agony. The thought of giving birth to one of their children rattled around her clouded brain. The thought that she might not even make it out alive overran the other thought immediately. If she died, she would finally be set free of this nightmare. If she didn't die, who the hell knew how long it would go on for.

* * *

Nick felt a shooting pain race up his leg as he shifted around on something cold and hard; something that felt suspiciously like the smooth surface of concrete. He didn't think he had the energy to sit up, but then he remembered Alex's screaming and writhing form as Sal carried her away to the gray buildings, leaving him stranded alone.

Nick shot up, nearly passing out at the horrible pounding headache that became more real to him at the sudden movement. He had absolutely no idea how long he had been passed out for, where the hell he was, or where Alex was. Those were probably the three most important things at the moment. Screw finding Olivia, Elliot, and Samson. They were probably long gone having been killed by Sal and that other sick woman. His only hope remained that Casey and Fin had found help and that Alex was okay. He needed her to be okay. He would never admit this in a situation other than now that she was the closest thing he had. Nick loved Alex more than he'd loved anyone, even his parents.

The room was dark and had a damp, earthy smell to it that made Nick's stomach turn. He probably would have thrown up from the realization that he was trapped had he actually had food in his stomach. A long growl emitted from his aching belly was the painful reminder. Nick's chaffed hands ran along the smooth, cold floor looking for something to grab onto; anything to make the destination clear. This place couldn't be big. Nick could hear his panted breaths echoing off the sides of the walls around him, he just couldn't see or find them.

That's when he heard it.

A creak.

The gentle rhythm of someone breathing.

Someone in the same room.

Nick froze, feeling his heart pounding dangerously fast against his ribcage, ready for the danger lurking in the corners to come out and attack. Thoughts of how the woman had attacked him flooded his mind and he felt himself begin to tremble. Maybe somehow he could fight back; get a good punch in the face and demand that she let him go. Even with his slightly delirious mind, Nick knew that it was no use.

"Hello?," a gruff voice rumbled out. It didn't sound like the woman, but it could've been one of Sal's friends which would probably be ten times worse. Nick stayed silent, hoping and praying this person would leave him alone.

"I know someone's there," the voice said sternly, sounding as if they were scolding a small child for not answering their mother's calls. All instincts to not respond and stay silent were ripped away from Nick as he answered.

"Who are you?," he squeaked in a not so manly voice. If Alex had been there, she would've surely made fun of him, that he knew. A pang of guilt shot to his heart at the thought of Alex being somewhere other than his arms. Nick heard a low chuckle, not exactly the threatening kind though.

"I haven't been so glad to here a god damn voice crack in a long time." Soon a feeling of relief swept over Nick. Maybe, just maybe, there was someone there that wasn't looking to kill him.

* * *

"Damn it," Olivia said as she hit her toe painfully once more on a large rock that had found it's way next to the well as she took another huge gulp from the bucket. Elliot was peeing in the bushes for the hundredth time since they'd gotten there hours ago. The sun was just setting behind the mountains and Olivia was left with the all to familiar feeling of fear, even though Samson and Elliot were right beside her.

"You okay?," Elliot called as he zippered up his pants.

"Yeah," Olivia sighed, not sure where to take the conversation. A million thoughts were clouding around her mind. Where the hell were we gonna go tomorrow? What direction? How far? What if we never find help?

"El," Olivia started, sounding slightly scared which made her uncomfortable, "What if we don't make it out of here?," The question rang true through the silent evening air as Elliot mulled over the answer. They'd both been thinking it the whole day, yet Olivia was the one with the balls to bring it up. Elliot sighed heavily, not sure what to say.

"Then I guess we don't make it out of here," he said weakly, forcing a grim smile. Olivia sat down putting her back against the cold stone of the well and drew her knees tightly to her chest, shivering as the temperature plummeted. Samson lay beside her drawing in heavy breaths, probably recognizing the terrible situation as well.

"I don't want to die," Olivia sniffed, "not like this." Elliot kicked a pebble and it landed by a small tree with a ting. He kicked another more roughly and another again with more force, until he was just kicking at the ground, crying.

"God damn it!," Elliot yelled as he slammed his fist into the wood of an old oak, ignoring the splintering feeling of his hand breaking. "Why the fuck did you have to run off Olivia?!," he screamed, focusing his anger at the girl seated with a terrified look in her eyes. "If you hadn't been such a selfish bitch than maybe-"

He paused, seeing her eyes cloud with tears and anger ignite as well. As much as she wanted to flip out at him, tell him to go fucking die, Olivia stayed as calm as she could.

"Whatever," she said softly, turning her eyes away from him afraid she wouldn't be able to look at him anymore. "Just whatever."

A moment later she felt his warm arms around her shoulders squeezing her tight and crying into her neck, wet tears sliding down his face.

"I'm so sorry," Elliot whimpered like he was a child again. Olivia buried her head in his shoulder and let him cradle her as she dug her hands into his back holding on for dear life. All of a sudden they both felt like five year olds again, so helpless and alone in the world looking for their parents to be the guiding light to safety. Except this time there was no guiding light. They only had each other now.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry guys I haven't updated this in a really long time, but I promise summer is coming and I'm going to be able to write way, way more! Hope you enjoy. Review, favorite, follow if you wanna :^) **

**SVU belongs to Dick Wolf and friends. **

* * *

July 6

Every bump in the highway sent a horrible pain jolting into Casey's skull as her head rested on the window in the back of the minivan. It was pitch black outside now, and she suspected that they were far, far away from where any danger lay, but she had to be certain to watch out. Of course, she'd warned the four teens of the shiny silver spikes on the road, so everyone was keeping a close eye out for them. Although at this point, Casey really didn't care what happened to her, she did in fact care about what happened to these sweet kids who had enough of a soul to pick her up from the side of the road. They didn't deserve to have to cart her off to a hospital and get their vacation ruined too, but neither did Casey, Alex, Olivia, Nick, Elliot, and Fin.

"Sweetheart," Abby's voice was soft and worried, "do you need something to eat or drink? We've got some Cola or Chips if you do." Casey looked up at the girl with bleary, tired eyes and shook her head, not fully confident that she would be able to keep any type of food down. Fin's body still came back to her mind in foggy, sudden flashes that left her eyes watering and heart pounding. It never occurred to her that she would ever be in a situation that would put her life in danger, almost exactly like a horror movie. Except in horror movies you could outsmart the killer if the writer made it so. But there was no writer.

"Casey," this time, it was Carson that spoke as his eyes flickered to the rearview mirror to look at her, "where exactly did this happen at?" His voice sounded crackly and slightly strained, almost as if he were trying to hold back a nervous yelp.

"A long way back by this diner place." That diner place she referred to was the one place that she never wanted to think about again. She didn't bother going into a description of it not nearly representing a diner since it would normally have been described as a shack.

"What was it called?," Carson demanded. Something inside Casey's head sent out a signal that something was wrong. The look in the boys eyes was scared, naturally. Who wouldn't be scared after they were just informed that there were nutty freaks out on the loose, living in the woods and preying on innocent humans? Yet, there was something else present that sent off bells in her brain. That 'something else' present in Carson's eyes was realization.

"Carson, gee maybe she can't remember," Dale said sarcastically with obvious snark. He glanced back at Casey apologetically for Carson's asshole-like behavior, although Casey had a suspicion that it was nothing new. Before she was given the chance to even mull over his mean demeanor, the car screeched to a halt and veered right, pulling over onto the side of the road. Now they were closer to the swaying dark pines and that scared Casey way less than what Carson about to tell them.

* * *

Elliot woke up coughing like hell. His throat felt like there was an angry, bubbly acid being poured down it, but before he would even reach out for Olivia, a violent blow to the head caught him off guard and sent him rolling aimlessly around the cleared area. His eyes were wide open, he was certain of that, because he could feel twigs and dead leaves being rubbed painfully into them as his face scraped across the ground, but he couldn't see a thing.

"Liv!?," He screamed, blindly thrashing his arms around looking for a sign that she was there with him. The insane possibility that she had been the one to attack him was knocked around his brain a few times before he realized that she just simply wouldn't. They only had each other now and neither one of them would ever jeopardize that, so there was only one other chilling possibility. Sal was back.

Olivia felt a horrified yelp building up inside of her lungs as the grimy disgusting hand pinched both of her cheeks so that her mouth was forced open. This gave the chance for the scream to escape, but she didn't hear it. All she did hear were her legs and feet flail wildly around, while her upper body was held in place by the mystery being she suspected was a very angry Sal. Olivia didn't realize what the person was doing until she felt a slimy, acid-like liquid resembling soda being forced down her throat.

Gagging, Olivia twisted her head vigorously side to side feeling the sticky substance trickle down the side of her face as the death grip on her let up the slightest bit. Taking the advantage to wiggle her shoulders violently enough until she was able to reach her hands out to the body of her attacker and claw. The satisfying feeling of delicate flesh being scratched, drawing blood, came with a sickening howl. In a moment, Olivia instantly registered that it was a female voice that emitted the screech. Not hesitating for a moment, she immediately slid out of the grasp of the woman and staggered to her feet.

"Elliot!" There was a muffled reply to her right that she couldn't understand. She lunged forward, hoping that she would be able grab ahold of Elliot and lug him away into the woods, far away from whomever was attacking them. She was greeted by nothing, but dead leaves as she knelt down and groped her hands hurriedly over the ground.

"Elliot where the fuck are you?," Olivia screamed into the nighttime air, once more greeted by nothing but the wind howling in the trees. Another thought struck her suddenly; where was Samson? Again she began screaming Elliot's name then Samson's, hoping to God that she would get some sort of response, but still nothing. The 23 year stumbled to her feet feeling hot, confused tears streaming down her dirty face. She tried to reach for something that would guide her to safety or to Elliot or Samson, but all she got was rough bark from the pine trees surrounding the well.

Olivia would only see darkness for the rest of the night.

* * *

The men had all taken their turn raping Alex, turning her mind into a tangle of emotional anguish. They had left her barely conscious on the uncomfortable wooden table, her hands and feet bound. Sal had whispered in her ear before he left that he would be back, so right now death was the the top thing circling around Alex's mind. If she were to die she would be able to escape from all of this with such ease and peace. She would just float off into the clouds and never again have to think of anyone or anything ever again.

Gently she would fall asleep...

So gently...

"Alex..." The young blonde's eyes snapped open from the sleep she had been lulled into by thoughts of never having to face the cruel world again. Fear pulsed through her lungs and her natural instinct to start writing and scream kicked in.

"PLEASE NO GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME! HELP M-" Alex's shrieks of terror were cut off by a hand slamming over her mouth and the gentle hushing of a male's voice.

"It's Nick, Al. It's Nick," Nick's voice soothed softly stroking back Alex's sweaty hair and waiting patiently until she calmed down from her screaming fit. It took her several long minutes for her breathing to become back to normal again and for her tense muscles to relax in the slightest. Her body was still expecting another attack, but her mind knew that it was only Nick. "Don't scream, okay?" Alex jutted her head up and down, only wanting fresh air to fill her lungs finally.

"Get this god damn wire off of me," Alex growled in a low voice, at the same time choking back a sob, once Nick's hand was away from her. Nick chuckled and pulled a knife off of a shelf next to the table and began sawing as gently as he could at the thick cords bounding her. It took all of Alex's self control to not break into hysterical fits of sobs out of gratefulness and love as he gently whispered to her that everything was going to be okay.

"Ho-How did you...?" Alex couldn't finish the question without let out a strangled whimper, so she knew that it would be best if she kept her mouth shut. Nick would get the point.

"Long story," Nick whispered, almost through with the wire wrapped tightly around Alex's wrists.

"We've got time douche bag." The two of them chuckled, loving the feeling of the old, teasing attitude the both of them would portray to each other. It was a small, comforting sign that things just maybe would get back to normal.

"Some crazy-ass woman locked me in this cellar," Nick explained, hearing the metallically sound of the wires swinging off of Alex's joints as he successfully sawed through them. "I wasn't alone. There was this guy there, Greg. He's about 60, I don't know, but he told me about how a couple days ago, he stopped by Sal's. He jumped Greg and locked him up in the cellar back there, going on about how he was going to make a good meal." Alex furrowed her eyebrows as Nick began working on the cords binding her ankles.

"But, how is he still alive?," Alex questioned, rubbing her swollen, red wrists.

"They have several different hunting grounds and they feed you this really weird shit that makes you gain a bunch of weight so that they're able to eat heartily," Nick said.

"Wait, Nick how do you know he isn't one of the sick freaks?," Alex asked, ignoring the shooting pains pulsing through her whole body as she sat up. Now that she wasn't screaming and thrashing around as she was being raped, she was able to see the room better. It looked like some sort of a kitchen with shelves and cabinets surrounding the entire medium sized perimeter. In the corner there was a rusty sink with stains that looked frighteningly like blood.

"He showed me his wallet. He had pictures of him and his nephew from last summer," Nick finished cutting the rest of the way through the wire and tossed the remains on the floor, helping Alex sit up. He winced inwardly when he saw how broken she looked. Her hair was a tangled mess, complete with leaves and twigs that she had retained when being dragged across the ground only a few hours previously. Her legs were a bloody mess and the fact that Alex was completely naked just entered Nick's overactive mind.

"Jesus, Alex, sorry," Nick apologized, swinging off the jacket Greg had given to him as he shivered in the cellar. Alex gratefully allowed him to cover her shoulders and chest with the thick cotton material. After zipping her up, Nick felt around on the ground for her running shorts and handed them to her, finding her underwear to be completely torn up. Guilt and pain swarmed around Nick's mind and he wanted to wrap his arms around her and cry.

"Nick," Alex whispered, standing up and pulling the running shorts over her sore, tired legs, "I-I love you." The next moment Alex's arms were around him, clinging on for dear life. The hug was tight, so tight that it hurt, but it showed how completely dependent on each other they were at this point. It only lasted a few seconds, but it seemed like hours of just holding on to the last bit of hope that they had.

"Com'mon Al," Nick breathed, pulling back away from his fragile friend as the thought dawned on him that they didn't have all night to blubber to each other about how thankful they were to have one and other. Sal or some other freak would be back any minute. Grabbing Alex's hand, he opened up the front door of the house and quietly and slowly inched down the porch stairs. It seemed like forever until they entered the daunting trees. Anywhere, even the forest where they had been attacked, was better than here.

"Greg's waiting for us," Nick mumbled softly, jerking his head to where a man was pressed flatly against a large pine tree only a few yards ahead. As they got closer, Alex realized that he was definitely not one of the men that had raped her. He couldn't have been. Greg was normal looking with graying dark hair and soft laugh wrinkles around the corners of his eyes that gave Alex the comforting impression of a loving grandfather.

"Nice to meet you, Miss," Greg said in a quiet voice as they approached him with enhanced speed. "Well, not under the circumstances," He added. Alex smiled and shook his hand politely, already getting a decent vibe out of the guy.

"Do you know how the hell to get out of here?," Nick asked in a hushed tone, praying that he did. Greg nodded without hesitation and ushered behind him to the never-ending maze of trees.

"'Bout five or six miles from here there's an overgrown trail that leads right out to an old town," Greg explained with a grin. "Should only take us a few hours and by the time they wake up we'll be long, long gone." Nick couldn't contain his giggle of relief at the thought of getting to somewhere safe before those bastards were able to catch them.

"Shhhh," Alex whispered with a muffled laugh as she clapped her hand over her mouth to contain her overwhelming happiness.

"Got plenty to talk about on the way there," Greg mumbled, "like how the hell we were able to get out of that cellar."

As the trio began walking, one thing came to Alex's mind; Sure she'd been through fucking hell, but in order to prove she was stronger than Sal and the others, she was going to beat their asses when the cops caught them.

* * *

Fin's eyes fluttered open to a blinding bright light and hushed voices, causing his soaring headache to pulse even more in his rattled skull. The first thought that came to his mind was that he was in heaven. He remembered Casey's scream, the car flipping over, and then just plain blackness. It shouldn't have taken him this long to get to heaven because when you die you die, end of story. There shouldn't be a god damn waiting period. Fin made it his personal mission to complain to whomever was in charge here.

"Hey, man," Fin mumbled, trying to lightly shift his weight, but only crumbling over in agony as shots of pain spiked through his entire body. Jesus, it felt like every single rib in his body had been snapped, not to mention the cool liquid he knew was blood pouring down his head. There was no way that he was dead. Dead people should not be subjected to feeling pain that was inflicted during the time of their death, no way.

"Kid, this is the police," A comforting voice spoke to him in a friendly tone, "I'm Detective Cragen and this is Detective Munch." Fin couldn't see, the headlights from the car still blinding him.

"We're going to get you to a hospital," A second voice said, who Fin assumed was the other Detective Brunch or Nunch or whatever it was. Fin felt overly thankful that there were people here to help him before he died of trauma, but a question kept nagging at his tired, foggy brain; Where was Casey?


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Sorry for not updating in a while! Please review! **

* * *

July 6th

The spooky, night air surrounding the woods seemed to seep in through the van's windows where the five of them were sitting, listening to Carson's cluttered mutters. Casey was scared of what Carson knew more than anything. Whatever it was, it was bad, worse than she had initially thought.

"Shit, we shouldn't have come here," Carson said, glaring at Dale and the two other girls, obviously avoiding Casey's eyes. For a moment the redhead wanted to scream, to demand that they keep driving until they found somewhere where they could call the police and report the disappearances and the spikes on the road.

"Carson, what the fuck is going on?," Bonnie demanded, sounding slightly angry with him. Casey stared at Carson hoping he would explain what was really going on. If he didn't tell them in the next few seconds, she knew she would probably lose what little bit of a sane mind she had left.

"It's-I can't, holy crap this is bad. This is really, really bad," Carson moaned, banging his head lightly on the steering wheel.

"Just tell us what it is and then it can be over," Dale said comfortingly. Casey recognized his attempts to pry information out of the distraught high school student that seemed as if he was about to have a panic attack if he already wasn't. She prayed that Dale would get him to open up, knowing that what Carson knew would probably not help them at all, but once they all knew they could get on their way back to the nearest town where they could find help.

Carson still looked scared and reluctant, but his eyes seemed to soften in the slightest, like he was giving up the fight against his fear. "My uncle, h-he lived up here for a while, but he disappeared a few months ago. The police found his car at that place, Sal's diner. They did this whole investigation thing and they couldn't find the guy who owned the diner, so they did a two week search in the woods. A few of the searchers went missing, so they stopped because they thought it was some sort of wild animal," Carson took a deep shuddering breath and let out a strangled sob. "The house was given to us. I thought it would be nice to come up here and chill out you know? I didn't think there was someone killing people up here. I'm so sorry."

Casey's eyes widened when she realized what it meant. Olivia and Elliot were still in the woods where searchers had disappeared. Nick and Alex were waiting at the diner where Carson's uncle's car had ben found. There was danger lurking around every corner here, as if the spikes weren't bad enough. This wasn't the paradise Casey had expected, or anyone expected for that matter.

A ringing interrupted her thoughts, a siren. The sound had never sounded so good to Casey's ears. It took only a moment for the five of them to make eye contact with one and other before all the doors were thrown open and all of them proceeded in jumping out into the middle of the road, waving their arms frantically like Casey had been with them.

The ambulance speeding quickly down the pitch black road screeched to a dead stop in front of them, the horn honking loudly, as if they were some kind of crazy, drunken kids that were screwing with them. Of course, it probably looked that way to the driver.

"Hey!," an angry voice called out. It took only a moment for Casey to notice the police car located behind the ambulance where a balding man had just stepped out of, looking particularly annoyed. Although normally she would've been scared out of her mind at the pissed off way the man was waving his arms about, shouting explicits, Casey had never been so happy to see a police officer in her life.

Whenever she had been around them when she was younger, they would constantly question her about everything, things she'd already been over with them. They were too persistent for her, too official. But her best friend wanted to be one, so she normally kept her mouth zipped instead of bitching about it.

"Please help us, please!," Casey screamed, limping as quickly she could over to the man. "Please t-there are people trying t-to kill us!" She couldn't muster another complete thought, for she broke down in hysterical tears, clinging onto the officers upper arm for support as her legs turned to jelly. Her world was spinning in circles, her mind was becoming clouded over with images of Fin's body in the car. Everyone else was missing, gone, possibly dead. She could be the last one left. God might've left her to be alone again, like he had with her parents.

Everything went black as her eyes slipped shut.

* * *

The morning mountain air was chilly against Olivia's skin. Even when she was curled up tightly in a ball, she couldn't stop the violent shivers that rocketed through her body every minute, though she knew she couldn't blame it entirely on the weather. Olivia figured that she had collapsed two hours after Elliot and Samson had been taken, kidnapped. She had no idea what the fuck she was going to do. All she could think about was the bones she had found in the forest and how she knew fully well that it could be Elliot in a few hours.

Tears streamed down her tired face as she fought off sleep. She unsuccessfully attempted to drag herself to her feet, but resulted in her collapsing onto the uncomfortable ground once more.

The sun filtered gently through the trees and splayed across Olivia's dirt covered, grimy face. God, she felt absolutely disgusting. She couldn't believe she had been in the woods for three days with no food or a place to wash up. Her hair was greasy and matted with small twigs and her skin looked a shade darker from having slept on the forest floor. And she wasfucking thirsty now!

This was exactly like a horror movie, something Olivia would know all about. Though she despised the woods, horror movies were her specialty. She enjoyed yelling at the stupid victims, curled up when she should be studying. They were thrilling, fun, like roller coasters. Now, though, she didn't think she would be able to watch any more of them without breaking down into tears of what it felt like to be so completely helpless, not knowing where the people closest to you were, not knowing when the horrible things were going to end….not knowing anything in general.

Olivia had to do something, though. If not for her than for Elliot and everyone else. What that something could be, she didn't know. She wouldn't get very far walking, especially when she was barely able to keep her eyes open already, but she had to do something, anything. For what Olivia assumed to be the last time, she pushed herself to her feet, shaking incredibly hard, and started walking in the direction she hoped would bring her to safety.

* * *

"How's he doing?," A deep male voice sounded in Fin's head.

"He's going in and out of consciousness," a pretty female voice said. "He has a pretty bad concussion too and broke a few ribs and his foot, but I would say he's pretty damn lucky. Kid, barely had a pulse for a while but we got him back to health. He must've been laying there for a few days because he's malnourished pretty badly. Lucky you found him when you did, or else he would've been dead."

"Good thing he got out of the car or else he would have surely suffocated from the combined heat and girl those kids picked up, she's still unconscious right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I think she was the one who dragged him out of the car. He was probably passed out on impact. I'm pretty positive she also performed CPR on him because nearly all of his upper ribs are broken where the procedure is performed. I would really like to shake her hand for doing that. Without her, this kid probably would be dead. Did you get her name by any chance?"

"I believe it's Casey, at least that's what those kids told us." Fin's eyes opened in the slightest at the mention of Casey's name, the world around him blurry. The lights were dimmed and he could barely make out the three people standing in front of him. He recognized the two men as the detectives that had rescued him. "Look, whatever she told them got all of them pretty hysterical. I still can't get a straight thought out of any of them without one of them breaking down," the taller, lankier one said.

"Casey?," Fin croaked out.

"Hey, kid," the balding detective said kindly, walking over closer to him. "How're you feeling?" It took Fin a moment to answer as that was a very hard question to answer. To describe it accurately would be to say he felt like he had been hit by a million pound truck, gone sky diving without a parachute, and then set on fire, but he wasn't going to say that.

"Okay," he grumbled. A hint of a smile played at the detective's lips as if he knew exactly what Fin wanted to say.

"I don't know if you remember, but I'm Detective Cragen and this is Detective Munch," he ushered over to the other detective who waved. Fin snorted and nodded.

"I remember, but what happened? I mean why was I out there? What happened to Casey?" A million questions were bouncing around Fin's head, but he couldn't talk fast enough for them to ask them all. The detective sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Fin, you were in a car accident." Well no fucking shit. "Your friend, Casey, managed somehow to get out. She must've thought you were dead, but know that she did try to revive you…." As Detective Cragen began telling them about what happened, Fin became more and more confused. From what Detective Cragen had heard from the kids, Casey had been in some sort of danger. What kind of danger was the mystery.

Fin didn't know how extremely clueless he was at the time.

* * *

Elliot felt something tight and heavy binding his wrists and ankles together, chains. It dug painfully into his skin, undoubtedly leaving various, deep cuts. His back felt like it was literally on fire from being forced into the uncomfortable position he was in. All in all, he hadn't felt this sore and beaten in a long while. He was pretty certain lack of food, water, and a comfortable bed was due to that. The overwhelming earthy smell and freezing floor made him feel even worse, claustrophobic.

It took all of his might to yank open his eyes from the sleep that was liable to set in any moment, although the awful pain was hard to sleep through because it had been the thing that had woken him up. At first everything around him was spinning and he could barely make out which part of the room was the floor and which part was the ceiling. His head felt like someone smashed bricks against and when he felt a small trail of warm liquid streaming down his neck, he realized it was a scary probability.

"Hello?," Elliot muttered into the darkness, hoping that he would get an answer, any answer. He was afraid, of course, of the person who had taken him away from Olivia, but he needed some sort of reassurance that he wasn't going insane and thinking up this whole, entire thing. A few beats passed, but nothing was heard except Elliot's accelerated breathing. After muttering a few curses to himself, El began to wiggle and squirm around, attempting to break free from the chains that he knew would hold him captive. He worked out nearly everyday, lifting weights, yet he still didn't have the strength to break free from the rough, metal links.

"God help me," Elliot whimpered to himself, mustering faith somewhere in his heart that someone would find him. What he wanted more than anything though was for Olivia to get out of there safely. If he was killed by these fucking freaks so be it, as long as she was safe.

In the pitch blackness, Elliot suddenly heard a subtle creaking. It sounded like it was coming above him, as if someone was walking over where he was sitting, as if he was underground. He thought he knew what it felt like to be completely in distress because of a closed space he was wrong. His already pounding head began spinning around in fast circles and before he could stop himself he emptied the sparse contents of his stomach, mostly water, on the cold, concrete floor next to him. Fuck, he needed to get out of there. He couldn't breathe,. It felt like his lungs were on fire. He was falling through an empty space and he couldn't get his bearings.

Just when he was certain he was going to die, a door above swung open, pretty, morning light bathing over Elliot's shaking body. Gratefulness swarmed around in his brain, but that was before he saw the disgusting woman standing above him. Her eyes were a sickly yellow that seemed to glow and her skin didn't even look human. For a moment, Elliot thought that he had stepped right into a childhood nightmare, even more so when she began descending down a rickety staircase.

Before he could stop himself, Elliot let out a strangled cry and began desperately trying to move himself backwards. Although he had been knocked out immediately last night after someone had poured that burning liquid down his throat, he knew that this woman had done it. The one glimpse he got of the mystery person last night were the eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

"Hello dearie," the woman croaked. She sounded surprisingly young for the awful way she looked, but that was the last thing on Elliot's mind. He was more focused on wiggling back and forth, trying harder than ever to free himself from the chains that bound him so tightly. Though he tried to hold back the screams of terror that threatened to erupt from his throat, he couldn't fully. The woman just laughed evilly.

"Don't think that I'm in the mood for a struggle boy, after that little stunt your friends pulled," she hissed through her yellow, rotten teeth. "I can assure you, they won't make it very far, not with our men out there hunting them. When they get back here, you'll be able to say your last words." She let out a scary, loud cackle that shook Elliot down to his bones.

As abruptly as she began laughing, she stopped and before Elliot could even let out a breath, she was advancing quickly towards him with something sharp in hand. He clenched his eyes shut, refusing to beg her to not slice him up, though he probably would prefer that she didn't. But he didn't feel a stinging pain of a blade penetrating his skin, in fact he felt nothing at all. He heard, however, a small metallic click. Hesitantly, he opened one eye to look at his hands. It surprised him greatly to see that they were free and no longer in chains, though his feet were. In any other dangerous situation, Elliot would have violently started swinging his arms around, punching the woman in the face, but this wasn't another situation. Who knew what these people were capable of? Cannibalism was one of them and Elliot didn't want to become their latest meal.

"Eat this," the woman spat, slamming a plastic plate of a mysterious food in front of him. It didn't actually look like food at all. It was dark and looked squishy and Elliot was not in the mood to try new food choices. "I'll be back," she growled and then she was gone. It left Elliot to be doomed in the blackness.

* * *

Alex, Greg, and Nick sat in the overgrown greens, swatting away the early morning mosquitos. They were exhausted after arriving at the edge of the trail after 3 hours and then following it for roughly three more miles before stopping for a break.

"I promise the town is coming up soon," Greg panted. "I used to stop there all the time when I drove to the airport to go on business trip. It's like the only reasonable town for miles." Alex sighed and leaned her head back against the tree.

"I'm so tired of this," she muttered sleepily. "Jesus fucking christ, I really just want a beer." Greg and Nick chuckled at her humor. Nick always admired Alex's humor. She seemed serious when she said most of these things, but it usually resulted in everyone cracking up.

"Think of it this way, Al, you're probably burning so many calories," Nick said with a grin.

"Why, Nick, do I need to?," she asked, her eyes seeming to burn holes into his. His smile faltered and he seemed to shrink back slightly. "Honey, I'm kidding," Alex said laughing, punching his arm playfully. Greg looked at the both of them.

"You guys seem more like siblings than anything," Greg announced. Alex and Nick exchanged smiles because it was undoubtedly true. They were best friends, they loved each other like a brother and sister would, they shared secret information that they kept buried deep in their hearts. When Greg and Nick had still been in that cellar before picking the lock with a paper clip Greg had had in his pocket, they had talked about Alex,. They had talked about Nick loving her like a sister, and about how he wasn't about to give up the fight against Sal and the others because they were hurting her.

"I know. He's my best friend and I'm so lucky to have him," Alex smiled at him and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Without him, I would be dead."

Nick stroked her pretty blonde hair back, as bad as it looked right then. "Don't say that, Alex. Please don't," he begged sadly, not wanting to think about what would have happened if he actually hadn't been there.

"Nick, they're probably all laying dead somewhere. I'm so sorry that we got into this, but I don't know what else we can do." He began to feel her body shudder as sobs ran through her body. Nick knew exactly what she meant. He didn't know what to do either, about any of this. Olivia and Elliot were probably dead since they had both ran in after Sal. It sent a fresh wave of tears to Nick's own eyes, but her hurriedly brushed them away. Fin and Casey might never even come back. Hopefully they hadn't and they were lounging somewhere that was thousands of miles away from here. But he knew that it was his own wishful thinking, not a plausible explanation.

"Guys," Greg interrupted, "we have to keep walking or we're never going to get there." They all knew it was true, but it took more effort then necessary for Nick to lay a tender kiss on Alex's forehead and for the both of them to pull themselves off the ground.

They continued on their way walking, Greg basically the only one talking, telling them about his life from his start in California to his desire to move up here, a place seemingly so peaceful and wonderful.

Alex was really thankful for Greg's consistent talking. It filled the awkward silence that would have been. He actually even seemed happy telling them about his past, as though he had wanted to get it all out for a while. It was really nice though to hear someone talk, someone that had also been through hell. It was definitely a wonder how he was talking so normally, yet Alex had a feeling that he was good at concealing his feelings, somewhat like Olivia. She shook her head. Just a normal thought of Olivia, not being dead upset her. She didn't want to get her hopes up and think she would ever see her best friend again. Everywhere in her heart, she did have hope. But she continued to deny the hope she had because if she admitted she had it, it would hurt so much more when she found out she would never see Liv again.


End file.
